Ambitious targets for Artificial Intelligence in the Nordic and Baltic countries

Back in 2017, ministers agreed that the Nordic-Baltic region must be a digital frontrunner. The declaration from the EU is fully in line with the Nordic-Baltic objective.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can assist in solving major societal challenges and bring considerable benefits to a variety of areas. Its potential lies in the implementation of technical solutions and knowledge that currently exist as a means to increase efficiency and create value, as well as in the development of AI as a more usable and accessible tool which, in the long run, will become more advanced and more suited to use in a variety of areas.

“It’s essential that we can better utilise data and AI to bring about innovation and develop solutions to major societal challenges. This is especially relevant to the sustainable exploitation of natural resources and the increased efficiency of the transport sector. Furthermore, the digital integrity that we’ve created in the Nordic Region must be respected throughout the process. If data is Nordic oil, trust is Nordic gold,” says the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers Dagfinn Høybråten.

The Nordic-Baltic ministers believe that the focus must be on developing and promoting the use of AI in order to serve people better. They will achieve this by:

• improving opportunities for skills development to enable authorities, businesses, and organisations to use AI to a greater extent;
• strengthening access to data to enable the use of AI to provide better services for those living in the Nordic and Baltic countries;
• developing ethical and transparent guidelines, standards, norms, and principles that can guide when and how AI applications should be used; and
• working to bring about international standards for infrastructure, hardware, programs, and data to safeguard interoperability, integrity, security, trust, usability, and mobility.

The ministers stress the potential that lies in Nordic and Baltic countries through their use of AI in business and the public sector. The extensive use of AI could double economic growth compared with only limited use of AI.

“AI will revolutionise business and the public sector. Applied in the right way, it can bring about a better quality of life for those living in the Nordic and Baltic countries. In order for us to be a force to be reckoned with, we need to harness the power of our region. I’m pleased that our countries have agreed to work together more closely,” says Sweden’s Minister for Digital Development Peter Eriksson.