Glenn Henriksen argued in his speech that we expect a higher level of precision from machines and computers than we do from humans. Is this fair, or are we forsaking efficiency for no good reason?

By Lars Johannessen, May 12, 2022

Head of Technology and System Development at Justify, Glenn Henriksen gave us an interesting look into the use of artificial intelligence in processing legal forms and documents. He set the scene by proclaiming that Justify aim to make law accessible for more people. In terms of being able to understand, but more importantly by making it cheaper. The way to do this, according to Glenn, is by scaling without adding more humans to the tasks, and this is where AI comes in. Software and machine learning have the potential to free up a lot of time that is spent on reviewing standardized forms and documents. There is however a challenge connected to this, and that is that humans can make errors and fill out forms wrongly in an almost infinite number of ways.

Read more and see the pictures fraom day 1!

This poses a challenge for AI and machine learning because there can suddenly be an error in a document that is unlike anything the software has seen or trained on. Glenn went on to explain that perhaps this is not the greatest issue after all.

– Ok, so let us say it (the software) discovers an anomaly. We will have it flag that document and send it over to a human who can go through it. The software goes back to processing thousands of documents, and the human resource will go through the few ones that are flagged, Glenn explained.

This led to the point that Glenn was making, we want our software to be without flaw, when we know that humans are not. If we expect ai and machine learned software to be perfect right out the gate, we might be let down. Glenn summarized it by saying “Ai is overestimated in short term, and underestimated long term.”. Ai and machine learning works best over time, with substantial amounts of data to train on, so the best way to do this is to start using them.

Day two of AI+ started with two parallel sessions taking place simultaneously – AI for beginners at Brygga kultursal, and AI for experts at Institute For Energy technology (IFE). Ruth Astrid Sæter, the hostess of this years AI+ conference opened the session at Brygga kultursal and introduced Karl-Magnus Haugen, CEO at airMont to the stage for his talk on how simple, stupid data becomes intelligent with AI.

At the same time in IFE’s auditorium, Division Director for Digital systems at IFE, Tomas Norlander welcomed the audience who joined the AI for experts session welcome and gave a short introduction to his background in AI and IFE’s history in regards to nuclear science and use of AI. Tomas then invited Alexandre de Oliviera e Sousa, Solutions Manager at Cognite AS to take the floor for his talk on AI in industrial context.

The two sessions the continued in parallel until lunch was served. The AI for beginners crowd got to hear Jan Erik Gausdal, senior advisor at Eye-share, talk about “How can AI simplify accounting tasks in your business?”, followed by Associate Professor at Østfold University College, Lars Vidar Magnusson explain AI in “Top-down image analysis”. Elisabeth Haugsbø, Head of Data at HUB Ocean, rounded of the session by explaining how “Data grooming for AI” is done.

The audience at AI for experts was treated to affiliated professor at Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Roberto V. Zicari’s talk on “Trust and AI”. He was followed by Jørgen Torgersen, CTO of Railway Robotics, and Christian Svalesen, Data Scientist at BearingPoint, talk about their project “AI for railway maintenance”. Andreas Risvaag, full-stadd developer at Heimdall Power finished the expert session with his talk on “A startup approach to AI for power grid efficiency” and how AI is used in preventing breaks and issues in the power grid.

Post lunch was opened by Henrik Fagerholt, Product Manager at Gyldendal Rettsdata, talk about “Lawyers, Law Tech and AI”. Henrik was followed by Dr. Inga Strümke, XAI researcher, TEDx speaker, and Particle Physicist at NTNU deliver an entertaining and somewhat unnerving talk on explainable AI. Inga stated that “Machines might be, and probably are, modelling non-human concepts”, and that self-driving cars have been proven to be mislead by pieces of tape strategically placed on stop signs, making them read it as a speed limit signs instead. Following Inga was Glenn Henriksen, focusing on the possibilities of AI in processing legal documents and regulations for AI.

As the last speaker, Torgeir Andrew Waterhouse, Founder and Partner at Otte, took the stage to deliver his views on “Security and society” and AI. Torgeir gave an enthralling speech on how we could merge democracy, economy, autonomy, and technology into our daily lives. He also pointed out that the need for cyber security has never been greater, and that we as society need to be more aware of this.

– One in four leaders think that they cannot be exposed to cyber-attacks. One in four leaders needs to leave their job, Torgeir proclaimed.

The day ended with a panel debate consisting of Torgeir Waterhouse, Elisabeth Haugsbø, Henrik Fagerholt, and Dr. Inga Strümke. The panel debated issues related to how AI will affect society, how we as humans should relate to AI and machine learning software and answered questions from the audience. A long day of captivating talks, inspiring ideas, and some possible spine-chilling outcomes of AI marked the end of this year’s AI+ conference. We hope to see you again in Halden for next year’s conference!

By walking across the stage, the robot dog Spot showed artificial intelligence in practice and made everyone in Brygga kultursal stretch their necks as he entered the spotlight at the first day of the AI+ conference.

By Anja Lillerud, May 4, 2022

Sitting together with the AI+ 2022 hostess Ruth Astrid Sæther on the stage sofa, Nils-Ola Widme from Abelia and Annita Fjuk from Digital Norway which were the speakers to enter the podium after the opening speech held by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, were informed that they would receive a special gift from an even more special gift presenter.

From the side of the stage, a blue robot dog entered the spotlight carrying two books on his back. As this is not an everyday sight even for AI enthusiasts, the four-legged robot got everyone’s attention while crossing the scene towards the three people on the sofa.

– Please welcome Spot, Sæther said.

The robot dog is developed by Boston Dynamics and Spot is a platform which Institute of Energy Technology (IFE) uses in research projects. IFE is also one of the initiators to the AI+ conference together with Smart Innovation Norway, eSmart Systems, Halden kommune and Cluster for Applied AI.

Historical soldiers and modern technology

This year’s conference is the third in a row, but it is the first full scale hybrid version with live audience. Halden is of course the place with Brygga kultursal as the conference venue surrounded by the historical city square and the harbor and protected by the Fredriksten fortress on top of the hill southeast of the city center.

A pre-opening of the conference took place on Monday with the social event AI & Beer where associated professor at Østfold University College, Henrik Skaug Sætra, talked about AI for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Historically dressed, the Fredrikshald Borgerbevæpning welcomed the guests standing in the sunshine outside the venue Tuesday morning. Fredrikshald Borgerbevæpning is an organization driven by volunteers aiming to preserve and bring the history of this civilian force which guarded the city from 1644 until 1881, to life.

The historical soldiers were a nice contrast to the subject of the two-day AI+ conference – the modern and rapidly growing technology of applied artificial intelligence.

Wide range of speakers

After a cultural kick off with the percussionist Aleksander Kostopoulos who gave the audience a really wakening performance both visually and audially, the Mayor of Halden Anne-Kari Holm wished everyone a warm welcome to the town, and the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held the opening speech digitally.

Støre spoke warmly about the national AI network and the importance of Norway keeping track of the AI development.

Throughout the day, speakers from Equinor, Digital Norway, Inmeta, Microsoft, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Chronos, Seidr, AI clinic, Oslo university hospital, Kristiania University College, Østfold University College, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Elhub, Abelia and VNNOR held presentations within some of the five topics of this year’s conference:

• Smart City and mobility
• AI enabled techonoly
• Security, ethics and regulations
• Environment and sustainability
• Energy

From speeches to dinner

At lunch, the participants had a short walk through the southern part of the town to eat in Haldens Klub, Norway’s oldest eatery of their kind established in October 1786.

The second part of day 1 began with a second performance by percussionist Aleksander Kostopoulos, and 4,5 hours later, when host Ruth Astrid Sæther wrapped the day up and wished everyone a nice evening, members from Fredrikshald Borgervæpning were ready to give a historical guided tour through the city center.

During the afternoon, the conference venue got rearranged turned into a fantastic dining area with great decorations. The first day of AI+ 2022 ended with a pre-drink, a three-course dinner, speeches, and entertainment.

The AI film “Ex Machina” was shown at the Halden cinema theatre after an initiative taken by AI+.

Around 200 people attended the first day physically and about 100 people watched it digitally, and day 2 offers several interesting presentations and new meetings between people.

One of today’s most long-term and desirable business resource is data. For decades, Norwegian companies have collected and stored data, and with AI as a constantly and rapidly growing technology, we finally have the tools to utilize much of the large amount of stored data.

By Anja Lillerud, May 2, 2022

Norway and Norwegian industry are in a unique position regarding the scale of data accessible. Only five years ago, the focus both politically and industrially was Norwegian investments in AI and AI research.

Already then Director Azure Cloud & AI Jon Jahren at Microsoft Norway questioned the direction of Norwegian AI development.

– Practically all the algorithms you will need are already open-sourced and the cloud vendors are making them increasingly easy to use, so that’s not where the real value lies, he explains.

Hence, Norwegian companies should concentrate on collecting data and utilize it in the best possible way instead of using resources on developing their own algorithms.

– The data is the gold of any company. Be sure to secure the business gold and let the major tech vendors handle and develop AI, says Jahren.

How to become data-driven

In recent years, more and more companies have been aware of the importance and value of their data, and they have tended to change the use of their data resources and their approach to AI.

At Microsoft’s AI business school, they sum up the journey to become a data-driven organization in three bullet points:

1. Focus on being a data-driven company
2. Implement it through an including and joint change of the business’ culture
3. The use of AI must be responsible and ethical

– The first bullet point is about being aware of the data you collect and how it can be utilized. It’s also a matter of making the necessary tools needed to implement the change available in the organization, explains Jahren.

Adopting AI

Another challenge Microsoft faces, is the different industries’ and managers’ fear of the unknown. And even though AI increasingly has become a public domain the last years, it is still unfamiliar to numerous people.

The fear relates not only to one’s own competence, but also to the risk by using AI. Issues regarding ethics and privacy are highlighted, not because of the privacy itself, but because of the AI solution and whether it is secure enough.

One of Microsoft’s major tasks is the work they are doing on developing tools which are using explainable AI. Towards the customers, the algorithms in explainable AI can explain the choices that were made along the way and what is the reasoning behind the result.

Another important task to solve, is what is called differential privacy. In an ideal world, it is possible to build AI models from person sensitive data without the algorithm identifying the data. As an example, Norwegian health organizations have thousands of registers containing valuable data who when being ran through an algorithm can reveal patterns and correlations that humans are unable to see.

– We know there are information hidden in the data that can avert serious illness and improve patient predictions. But as of now, we don’t how to use the data and AI while at the same time ensuring privacy, says Jahren.

A third challenge to handle, is confidential computing. If you need to store or share personal information, you need a secure way to do so. When using a cloud, you must be sure that the cloud supplier under any circumstances doesn’t have an opportunity to access your information. Such solutions are becoming much cheaper and easier to use contributing to an increased adoption of AI into businesses.

– Solving issues like these mentioned, is probably one of the most important contributions from Microsoft, says Jahren.

– Responsible AI is important

Since both trust and reliability are important elements for succeeding a transformation and for adopting AI in an organization, Microsoft have created their own principles and adheres to them to ensure that their AI is responsible.

According to Microsoft, AI must be:

• Fair and unbiased
• Reliable and safe
• Inclusive
• Transparent
• Accountable
• Assuring privacy and security

Because of these principles, Microsoft decides to reject some projects. This is to preserve their integrity. In some cases, the large international company requires a declaration from their AI users to allow them to download the software.

– We cannot control everything and everyone, but by setting clear ethical considerations for usage, we express our opinion and make the user aware of the purpose of the algorithm, says Jahren.

– AI brings new opportunities to mankind

The last decade, AI has become more public, but we are still in the starting pit. The Director Azure Cloud & AI at Microsoft Norway is excited to be a part of the era.

– This new technology brings new opportunities to mankind. The algorithms have become so sophisticated and detailed that they solve issues just as good or even better than humans. Humanity is experiencing a boost by AI enabled applications that I find exciting, says Jon Jahren.

And because of AI being a commonplace, he knows Microsoft will face new and more challenging tasks.

AI is surrounding us and affecting our everyday life, hence there exists a wide range of expectations regarding AI and functionality in the society. The bank customers expect AI solutions to make their bank relation easier and more secure. At home you deal with AI software in your robotic vacuum cleaner and refrigerator.

– There is an anticipation regarding both the functionality of our products and that we offer products solving the tasks that the consumers or businesses need to be solved. This must be done without causing a major competence gap in the market, so it is accessible for a wide audience of developers and users. The days when AI was related only to PhDs in white overcoats are gone, says Jon Jahren.

Did you know that your sentence structure, use of emojis, speed of keystrokes or choice of words reveals your age group and gender? No? Well, they do. And now is the software AiBA, which manage to identify potential harmful conversations within 20 chat messages, on its way to the market.

By Anja Lillerud, May 1, 2022

Cyber grooming is a major threat to children and youths on the Internet. By impersonating young people through fake online accounts, adults reach out to kids and teenagers on chat and gaming platforms with the intention of making friends with them. Over time they build a trust-based relationship with the children before it turns in to a living nightmare for the young ones.

– The cyber groomers’ purpose is to encourage the kids to send sexualized pictures and nudes of themselves. If they receive any, they demand more. After massive pressure and threats of spread, and in despair to try to avoid the nude photos going viral many young people send new pictures to please the groomer, tells Hege Tokerud, CEO and co-founder of AiBA.

Some relationships escalate because cyber groomers manage to persuade the kids and teenagers to meet in person. Such encounters very often lead to physically sexual assaults.

A proactive solution

By using AI, AiBA trains algorithms to detect potential cyber grooming conversations at an early stage when a connection on a gaming or chat platform where the AiBA solution is implemented, is established. If one is identified, the software alerts the platform owners to make them aware that measures ought to be done.

To ensure the reliability and that correct measures are taken, a human resource is verifying the warning before measures are activated.

– What makes AiBA unique, is the proactive approach to the problem. Our goal is to stop grooming as soon as possible when a relationship to a child is established. Earlier we could detect and identify cyber grooming within 40 chat messages. Now we can do it in less than 20, explains Tokerud.

Expert in behavioural biometrics

Behind the technology presented in AiBA, hides the result of years of research on behavioural biometrics. Structure of sentences, use of emojis, speed and rhythm of keystrokes, and choice of words are elements related to age and gender.

Professor and researcher at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Patrick Bours, is an expert in continuous analysis and behavioural biometrics and had the idea of commercialising the research results.

The technological implementation is done by Inmeta, a Norwegian consulting company in Crayon group, specialized in digital and data driven innovation. The company has more than 200 advisors and consultants based in Oslo, Trondheim, Hamar and Bergen:

– When Hege contacted us for a collaboration on developing the technology needed to realize the AiBA project, there was no doubt. We wanted in! This is a kind of project that matters, and Inmeta want to make footprints, says Henrik Slettene, Manager AI and Machine Learning in Inmeta.

Over the last 7 years Inmeta has delivered 150 machine learning projects to more than 50 companies in both private and public sector. With 25 dedicated data scientists and business advisors focusing solely on the Artificial Intelligence domain, Inmeta addresses the complete value chain including strategy development, data platforms, data science and analytical model development, AI operationalization and business change and development.

No legislation in Europe

Access to behavioural biometric data is crucial to be able to train the AiBA algorithm to detect and identify cyber groomers. Paradoxically, lack of data is one of the major challenges the project faces.

– We experience that some gaming enterprises are reluctant to involve in AiBA because they fear to get linked to cyber grooming in a negative way. Still, everyone acknowledges that cyber grooming is a big and growing problem, and we urge the industry to change their approach to the subject, says Tokerud.

In the United States, the industry is regulated by a law obliging the companies to secure their users. A similar legislation has been attempted to be introduced in the EU without success. The industry argue that the legislation will be too resource-intensive to comply with and hence, it will be a dormant legislation.

– But now we have a solution, Tokerud points out.

– Your children are safe with us

Two global gaming companies targeting children and youths are pilots in the AiBA project. They are going to implement the software, test it on their game platforms and give valuable feedback to improve the product.

– They think the other way around regarding the company’s name being related to cyber grooming. It is important to them to communicate to parents worldwide that “your children are safe on our platforms”, says Tokerud.

The efforts from the two pilots are crucial to train and improve the AiBA algorithm. In addition, the project also have a collaboration with the Norwegian police to discover if the software can be used to detect cyber grooming conversations in ongoing investigations.

– Developing a software like this is extremely demanding and challenging and a never-ending task. Someone will always try to find a way to fool the system putting us in constantly need of data from authentic chat logs, explains Slettene.

Patrick Bours is attending the AI+ conference together with data scientist Saghar Asadi from Inmeta and they will talk more about the research and technology behind AiBA.

In the coming years – few or many – AI (Artificial Intelligence) will affect us on a daily basis. Just how and to which extent is difficult to say, but areas such as transport, city planning, and decision-making are certain to benefit from artificial intelligence.

By Lars Martin Johannessen, April 29, 2022

In the upcoming future, the green and efficient future, we can no longer afford to be wasteful when it comes to energy. We can no longer afford to be wasteful when it comes to food. We can no longer be wasteful when it comes to nature. We can no longer be wasteful. In this context, we cannot afford any more bad choices. History books will reflect on our time as either a turning point, or a tipping point. What we do in the coming years could be era defining for humanity. Success or failure in the short terms. This obviously will not happen on its own. Research, demanding work, and most important, decisions will generate our outcome.

Decisions to go green, to capture carbon, investment in holistic solutions for a better future for all. Though decisions. So, who will have the guts and the knowledge to firmly stand behind their decision or choice, knowing that it represents either rescue or catastrophe? Because we can no longer afford the wrong answers to our problems. This is where any decision maker would be a lot more comfortable knowing that the choice they are making is the right one, obviously. Artificial intelligence proposes a solution here. Let it do the math, calculate the outcomes, describe the scenarios related to the different options. Here is your blueprint, this is how you save the world, this is how you destroy it.

Democracy or technology?

Perhaps the notion that AI could give us all the answers we need is somewhat utopian in nature. There are several questions related to how something like this would be implemented and put to use. The aspect of relinquishing power and responsibility to software is also highly debatable from a human point of view. Then there is the issue with so called black box AIs. Many would argue that transparency in decisions is a key aspect of any solid democracy. A software that produces answers and solutions without explaining its work and processes may deter people from embracing it.

There are ongoing projects who set out to solve this issue, displaying how artificial intelligence uses data to determine and find the best outcome. Yet, there is still the feeling that technology is evolving faster than our collective comprehension of it. The merging of software and politics will be controversial, and it should be. The percentage of people who fully understand AI and its ramifications are borderline insignificant compared to the overall population. This is in its own a democratic issue of immense importance.

I had to look this up.

He who designs, rules?

There are also questions related to abuse – how are we sure that the AI is programmed to benefit you and me, and not the owners who made it? In today’s volatile misinformation landscape, would we know if someone managed to tamper with the databases used in the decision-making process, or somehow alter the outcome in one way or another? Then again, the democracy we see in civilized societies around the world is not without fault, abuse, or corruption either. The question is most likely how we build an artificial intelligence that is incorruptible, which doesn’t inherit the bias from its creators.

If and when we manage that, the arguments against merging AI and democracy are rapidly decaying. The fact probably is that we can’t afford to let lack of knowledge in the general population hinder us from taking advantage of a tool which potentially could help solve some of our greatest challenges. There is good reason to believe that the future will be supported by artificial intelligence in terms of augmented decision-making. We are pressed on time, we are pressed on getting it right, and this might be the window of opportunity that artificial intelligence needs to merge into our lives.

With revenue that has been increasing for 20 years, Eye-share AS has found the solution on how to meet customer demands.

By Anja Lillerud, April 22, 2022

When being responsible for the daily income and expenses of a company, you depend on having total control of and knowing the causality of the figures presented to you.

Eye-share’s portfolio of three main products is designed to meet economical professionals’ demands for a more efficient way of working without compromising accuracy. The eye-share Capture solution is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system enabling automatic data extraction by digitizing text from documents from sources such as paper, image and PDF files. Eye-share Workflow solution offers a complete automated Purchase-to-Pay solution giving full overview and control through a user-friendly and cloud-based software platform. The eye-share Portal solution is a supplier portal for better collaboration between the buyer and the supplier through digital interaction in the purchasing process.

20 years of progress

To be able to solve these challenges that unstructured, unavailable data represents to important economy fundtions, Eye-share has since 2001 been working closely with their costumers to improve their products and the technology behind – and succeeded in doing so.

– The company has experienced great growth over the past years with increased revenues and a lot of development potential, and last year we were awarded the Gazelle award for the second time. With more than 100 employees Eye-share has both national and international enterprises in the portfolio which we are very proud of, says Kai-Ronny Mydland, R&D Director at Eye-share.

A significant Eye-share customer is NorgesGruppen, one of Norway’s leading trading houses within retail, with more than 20.000 inbound invoices per day and an automation degree of 90 percent. A perfect example of an enterprise committing to automation and how crucial the accuracy and reliability of technology is when handling many transactions within a short time frame.

There is no room for failure.

From black box to “glass box”

The key factor in developing a reliable AI-software and building a trust-based relationship with the end user, is by enabling explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). XAI brings the traditional AI technology from a black box perspective without the possibility to verify the result, to a transparent level which allows the user to control and validate the results both during and after the process, which instils trust, efficiency, and reliability.

– XAI shows you the connections and choices made along the way, which are the reasoning behind the result. In our experience this enables the enterprises to outline their financial resources in a better way since they adopt to the AI solution much faster. Trust is key, if they do not trust the outcome and the results from the AI processing, they will stick to manually maintaining rules for as long as they can, explains Mydland.

The black box technology is often subject of great debate regarding trust and reliability. The AI process finds all its answers in the data, but how do you know if you can trust the results presented to you? With XAI the user is given insight and control.

– Different opinions regarding AI

The Eye-share software suite is a designed to support the financial business role. Automation has always been important. Despite technological changes and opportunities in new technology, the company experiences that one of the biggest jobs now is to convince the customers of the benefits using artificial intelligence and help them adopt the technology in their company.

– When meeting the market, we encounter different opinions regarding AI. For many, it is difficult to let go of hands-on control and have confidence in technology and the software. By showing them how we use XAI and our results, most companies realize how much they can benefit from the technology, says Mydland.

At the international conference AI+ in Halden 3-4 May, the Eye-share employed advisor and AI enthusiast Jan Erik Gausdal will be talking about XAI and the Eye-share software.

– We find it important to participate on arenas regarding AI and the use of this technology. AI+ is an interesting conference gathering both national and international actors in the industry and we are attending to discuss, learn, inform, and enlighten, says Kai-Ronny Mydland, R&D Director at Eye-share.

In his new book “AI for the Sustainable Development Goals” Henrik Skaug Sætra describes how AI can contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But just as important: he argues that AI may also turn into sustainability’s – and society’s – worst enemy, if not handled right.

By Anja Lillerud, 29 March 2022

The world has gathered around the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to achieve them by 2030.

The goals deal with issues such as justice, economic growth, climate, health, food and water, work and education, consumption and production, equality, clean energy, innovation, no poverty and zero hunger.

As a topic obtaining great interest around the world and having an increasing importance in most areas in the society, artificial intelligence (AI) is now often considered an important factor in accomplishing these goals.

But:

– AI is only a part of the solution, emphasizes author and professor Henrik Skaug Sætra.

He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Engineering and Economics at Østfold University College (ØUC), but on 1 April 2022, Sætra enters the position as leader for ØUC’s focus area “The digital society”.

In February, his book “AI for the Sustainable Development Goals” presenting both sides of how AI can and cannot contribute to fulfilling the SDGs, was published.

– Changes are needed

– I have tried to see the whole picture. Both advantages and disadvantages with the development and use of AI and which threats and challenges emerge with this technology, explains Sætra.

For example, AI algorithms can be trained and taught to help us develop systems and infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But that requires energy; hence the use of AI also causes greenhouse gas emissions.

So, how do we know whether AI gains the sustainability or not?

Sætra gives some answers in his book by presenting the obvious consequences and the positive potentials for each of the 17 SDGs, aiming to make his readers understand why the solution to achieve the UN’s sustainability development goals cannot be AI alone.

– We need to change the industry’s infrastructure. Today big data is disproportionately accessible to a few major stakeholders, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. That conflicts with several of the SDGs saying the data should be universal, available, and not too expensive so even poor countries are able to develop their own technology and use this in a beneficial manner, Sætra says.

– Must be used right

Working on the book and as an employee at ØUC, the author and professor has concluded that the world is unlikely to have fully achieved the SDGs by 2030. The latest UN climate repost published in March 2022, shows that if we continue as we do today, we will not even be close to reaching them.

– Together with political determination and power of action, resources and funds, sensible use of AI can be a crucial part of the solution. If the technology is not being used right, it may instead complicate the transformation required. I am not convinced the world society will be able to make all the changes described in UN’s 17 sustainable development goals because they are so ambitious, says Sætra.

He finds it important and useful to highlight such complex and elaborate field of expertise through a conference such as AI+.

– At this conference you gather politicians, professionals, investors, stakeholders, and others who are interested in the topic and users of the technology. The politicians representing the citizens need to know how to use and regulate AI, the developers need to know how to create useful and reliable technology, and those who implement the technology in their business need to know what questions to ask to implement and use the right type of AI, says Henrik Skaug Sætra.

NOTE: Henrik Skaug Sætra is one of the speakers at AI+ 2022.