3#5 - Alex Moltzau - Norway & AI (Eng)

«How well are we rigged in Norway to handle this?»

What a fantastic talk -  With so much happening in Norway in autumn 2023, I brought on Alex Moltzau for a chat in AI policy and Norway. Alex Moltzau is a Senior Policy Advisor at the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Consortium (Nora.ai), and one of the most outspoken experts on AI policy and ethics in Norway.

• Throughout the last years, there has been a significant change in public attention to AI, even though AI has been part of our lives for quite some time.
• There is a great AI community in Norway, with great research that is done.

What is NORA.ai?

• NORA is a Norwegian collaboration between 8 universities, 3 university colleges and 5 research institutes within AI, machine learning and robotics.
• NORA is strengthening Norwegian research, education and innovation within these fields.
• NORA’s ambition is International recognition of Norwegian AI research, education and innovation.
• NORA’s vision is excellence in AI research, education and innovation.
• NORA is active both in the Nordics, but also collaborating broadly on the international stage, like exchange programs for Ph.D. students, collaboration with other national institutes, contribution to eg. OECD, even contributing to shaping bi-lateral agreements, +++

Why AI policy?

• There is a growing concern in society about AI and its impact on our lives, how it affects elections, misinformation, our work
• How can AI help us to handle information on our citizens more effectively?
• How does AI affect our children, their learning?
• There is a misconception, that we don’t have sufficient regulations for AI. Existing laws apply to AI as much as to other methods and technologies.
• What kind of infrastructure do we need to build in society? Is language an important infrastructure for our society?
• What is the public infrastructure, the public good we need to invest in as a nation?

State of AI in Norway

• What Government mechanisms are we going to build to handle artificial intelligence?
• There are three major announcements that have shaped the state of AI in Norway during the last weeks and months:

1. The AI Billion: The Norwegian Prime minister has announced that the Norwegian Government will invest 1 billion NOK in AI over the course of 5 years.
2. The Ministry of Defense has published their AI strategy.
3. A new Ministry of Digitization and Governance has been established in the Norwegian Government, with responsibility of AI.

• Internationally there are two concerns around AI that are predominant:

1. Security - how to ensure cyber security and reliability in models.
2. Bias - how to tackle bias in AI systems, work with fairness and trust.

• We need to ensure that possibilities through AI configure to our Norwegian society.
• We need to think about the values we have build our society on, and how AI can support these values.
• Norway is earlier than most countries on actively working with regulating AI, eg. in relation to privacy.
• AI is about implementation - it is about trying, failing and trying again.
• We need to minimize possibilities for disaster, by taking learning from other countries.
• There need to be mechanisms to ensure that the cost of compliance with regulations is not too high.

The role of Data Professionals

• We would love to see data folks should take a more active role in society in regards to help everyone to understand the challenges within data and AI better.
• Data Management professionals can ensure safety and trust in our society going forward, and should therefore have a more active role in politics.

https://www.nora.ai/