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Nordic states launch ambitious AI centre regional plan
Nordic states to increase cooperation on artificial intelligence to help region close gap on global leaders.
Nordic governments have rolled out an ambitious cross-border initiative to establish a joint artificial intelligence (AI) centre to strengthen security and business competitiveness.
The launch of the Nordic AI Centre (NAIC) project fulfils a commitment made by Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway in 2022 to expand cross-border collaboration in key technology areas such as AI, cyber security and digitisation.
The NAIC will be run by Nordic Innovation (NI), an organisation that operates under the direction of the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) and is funded by all five Nordic states, including Iceland. Founded in 1971, the NCM functions as the central body for Nordic inter-governmental cooperation.
NI has tasked a special working group, comprising AI Sweden, AI Finland, IKT-Norge and Danish tech firm Digital Dogma, to develop the operational template for NAIC.
The preparatory work, in advance of the NAIC’s official launch during the first half of 2025, will involve constructing partnership models, organisation structure and funding mechanisms to finance the regional AI centre.
The NAIC’s mission is to deepen Nordic cooperation in the AI domain to both drive international competitiveness and ensure the region doesn’t lag behind global leaders, the US, China, Britain and Singapore, in terms of adoption of AI technology, said Svein Berg, the managing director of the Oslo-headquartered NI.
“A new benchmark was set when AI Sweden opened a national AI centre in 2019,” he said. “The development of the NAIC takes us to a whole new and higher level. The strengthening in collaboration this project brings has the potential to boost competitiveness across the Nordic region for enterprises and organisations in the public and private sectors.”
Societal benefits
The inter-state collaborative gains offered by the NAIC can generate significant societal benefits and competitive advantages for the Nordic countries, including addressing major societal challenges in a shared way, said Berg.
“The Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group (NE-AI-EG) presented five concrete proposals to Nordic government business and digitalisation departments in June 2024,” he said. “These proposals focused on supporting Nordic businesses. One of the AI recommendations involves gathering Nordic knowledge and resources to create a platform for exchange through a Nordic Center for Responsible AI.”
The long-term ambition for the NAIC is to create a centre of “real excellence and relevance” for companies and organisations across the Nordic and Baltic regions, said Martin Svensson, the CEO of AI Sweden.
“As a united force, we have the opportunity to tackle the really big challenges faced by countries in the Nordic region,” he said. “To this end, AI Sweden’s experience and knowledge can be harnessed in shaping the structure and work of the new Nordic AI centre. The centre will also serve to drive co-investment in strategic resources and increase AI usage.”
Read more about AI in the Nordics
Nordic adoption of, and investments in, AI technologies, failed to keep pace with international development trends and competitors in 2023–2024. The Global AI index 2024 was published in September, and graded 83 countries. It saw Finland’s position as the highest-ranked Nordic nation decline from 10 in 2023 to 15 in 2024.
Denmark, Sweden and Norway also saw their rankings fall in the index. Denmark’s rank dropped from 16 in 2023 to 22 in 2024, while Sweden’s ranking slipped from 17 in 2023 to 25 in 2024. Norway’s ranking declined from 24 in 2023 to 26. Iceland’s ranking of 40 in 2024 was unchanged from 2023, a year when the index graded 62 nations.
A roadmap to strengthen regional AI collaboration, in addition to expanding its reach to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, was outlined at a special meeting of Nordic and Baltic digitisation ministers in Stockholm in November. The AI Readiness meeting discussed 21 recommendations formulated by public and private sector stakeholders operating in the field of AI, and followed the Nordic Council’s AI Readiness Forum held in Copenhagen in August.
Regional cooperation and a heightened level of coordination are essential to address both the immense opportunities as well as the technical and ethical challenges posed by AI, said Erik Slottner, Sweden’s public administration and digital policy minister.
“We are in the midst of a seismic technological shift where AI has the immense potential to transform large parts of society,” he said. “The 21 recommendations we analysed help the Nordics to signpost a common direction involving cooperation around AI. Our alliance not only boosts our ability to influence technological development, it also contributes to achieving a more sustainable and safe use of the technology.”
The NCM is currently considering five policy recommendations dealing with the ethical and responsible use of AI that were formed and presented by the NE-AI-EG, the agency that operates under the direction of NI and is advised by a group of 23 leading Nordic experts drawn from private business, academia, public sector and civil society.
The NE-AI-EG’s policy proposals recommend five specific strategic actions to overcome the main barriers related to the rapid development of AI. Moreover, the recommendations advance the goal of using the responsible use of AI as a tool of critical advantage to drive the competitiveness of business and industry across the Nordic region.
The targets embodied in the five recommendations comprise
- The development of a joint Nordic strategy for ethical and responsible AI
- Establishing a Nordic centre for ethical and responsible AI focused on AI innovation
- Promoting and coordinating large language models for Nordic languages
- Cultivating a skilled workforce and competent tech embracing society
- Enhanced transparency to support the sustainability of AI technology
A cohesive and shared Nordic AI strategy would consolidate resources, expertise and innovative capabilities to develop robust and ethically sound AI services, said Berg.
“Four of the five Nordic states are updating their national digitalisation and AI strategies in 2024,” he said. “Our ambition is that the five recommendations will serve as a roadmap and contribution to this journey to accelerate the rapid development of artificial intelligence to meet the democratic challenges and new business opportunities that lay ahead.”
With an already high level of digitisation, the Nordic region is well positioned to become a strong global AI force, added Berg.
“For optimum results, Nordic countries need to follow two tracks simultaneously,” he said. “We must develop and implement AI actively and not lose sight of how this can be done in an ethical way. That said, we cannot solve the challenges we face independently as separate states. We can achieve more when we cooperate closely together across the Nordics.”
