New Nordics AI - Preparation project

PROJECT  2024 ACTIVE

In the future, the Nordic region will face major societal challenges. To meet the challenges the Nordics must develop and adopt AI. To support Nordic businesses’ development and application of responsible and ethical AI we can achieve critical mass by pooling and coordinating resources through a collaboration platform, center or hub.

Through this project, Nordic Innovation together with project lead AI Sweden and partners ICT Norway and AI Finland seek to prepare the foundations for a Nordic-Baltic AI Center focused on development and adoption of responsible AI in the Nordics and Baltics.

This is a first step on the recommendations coming from Nordic Innovation’s Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group, which you can read more about here. The group recommended five concrete actions targeting five key barriers for Nordic businesses in reaching the vision of the Nordics as leading region in ethical AI and responsible use of data.

Purpose and effects

The purpose of the preparation project will be to catalyze AI adoption, build stronger international relevance and invest in strategic knowledge and solutions for the participating countries.

The overall purpose of the establishment of a center for AI adoption on a Nordic and Baltic level is to:

1. Support each participating country/national party in their ambition to drive and catalyze AI adoption in its national ecosystem - accelerating the adoption of AI in the private and public sectors.
2. Increase the collaboration among the participating countries.
3. Build stronger collective international relevance.
4. Constitute a center for investments in strategic knowledge, technology, and solutions relevant for several of the participating countries (such as large language models, dedicated labs, etc).

As mid & long-term effects of such a center we believe the following are relevant:

• Accelerated AI adoption across the Nordic region due to facilitated peer learning and knowledge transfer.
• Increased competitiveness and development of public services by the use of AI.
• Significant relations and collaboration across the ecosystem of participating countries.
• Broader and stronger impact of public investments through a culture of, and concrete mechanisms for, sharing.
• International attractiveness and relevance, such as EU funding, talent attraction and international private investments.
• Contribution to higher alignment across the national governments’ discussions and ways to address investment, leadership and over time, solutions for the impact of AI on competitiveness, the labor market and the society.

Objectives and deliverables of the Preparation project

The high-level objective of this Preparation project is to establish New Nordics AI (working name), a center for AI adoption across the Nordic and Baltic countries with 3-5 years of funding from Nordic Innovation, from participating countries and from larger partners wanting to contribute.

• A strong consortium across a minimum of three countries including the most relevant national actors for driving AI adoption and other aspects that might become relevant in that context during the preparation.
• National and/or partner funding matching the possible funding allocated by Nordic Innovation.
• Clearly defined mission, objectives, effect, governance, management, activities, financial model and budget of the center for the first years.
• Relevant documentation and applications for Nordic Innovations and other funding parties decisions.

The preparation of New Nordics AI will be based on AI Sweden’s experience, strategy and successful ways of working that has been developed together with over hundreds of partners in Sweden over more than 5 years.

AI Sweden has teamed up with two leading trade associations in Norway and Finland, IKT Norge and Teknologiateollisuus (Technology Industries of Finland) to lay the foundation for a new Nordic and Baltic collaborative center for AI Adoption. Teknologiateollisuus has recently started AI Finland and IKT Norge is a natural hub for engagement of relevant Norwegian actors.
Together the parties have exceptional networks and understanding of the ecosystems in the respective countries.

Background

The Nordic and the Baltic Countries face increasingly urgent and major challenges related to climate change, increasing energy demand, and an aging population. To solve them and to secure a high quality of life in the Nordic-Baltic (New Nordics) region the countries need to increase their efforts, investments and collaboration in developing and using AI in a responsible way.

Together, the five Nordic countries list as the 10th largest economy globally and have around 27 million inhabitants. In the Nordic region, the commitment to fairness, equality, trust, and respect for human rights is in the foundation of shared values. These values are crucial for guiding the responsible development and adoption of AI. The Nordics have a dense concentration of tech companies relative to population size, punching above its weight and are well-positioned to lead in ethical AI develop­ment. But to do so, Nordic businesses’ need favorable institutional conditions to support their jour­ney to develop and adopt ethical AI.

The Nordics can be a creator and early adopter of technology – shaping the agenda rather than passively consuming tech and inno­vation created elsewhere, making the region more dependent on other parties and less resilient. Such leadership does not only ensure Nordic regional values but also provides the region with a significant competitive edge, affirming the principle that ethical business is good business. Adopting an ethical and responsible approach to AI has potential to bring many business benefits, including for example faster adoption of new technology and support with regulatory compliance.

In addition to increasing their national efforts, the New Nordics region would benefit from pooling investments and collaborating in selected strategic areas. This can be done through setting up a Nordic center focused on responsible and ethical AI development and adoption, with the working title “New Nordics AI.”