Peter’s Pioneers: Checking the Nordic AI Pulse.
Welcome to the sixth edition of Peter’s AI Pioneers newsletter. Dive in for a roundup of this week's AI news, deals and insights covering the Nordic region.

📚 In This Issue:

1. How Can We Get Ahead With AI?

2. Can AI Help Save the World?

3. Denmark Announces AI Investment

4. News Roundup

5. Cool Tools and Companies

6. Podcast Insights: The EU view on AI, AI and the Climate

7. Upcoming: Nordic AI Events You Shouldn't Miss

Top Three News Stories

How Can We Get Ahead With AI?

Denmark must push ahead with new AI business models and initiatives - or risk being left in the dust.

This was part of the message from Dansk Erhverv (The Danish Business Association) in connection with an ambitious new plan to bolster Denmark’s commitment to artificial intelligence (AI) and drive the nation's AI initiatives.

In connection with the plan, Brian Mikkelsen, CEO of Dansk Erhverv, emphasised the importance of AI and automation in addressing impending labour shortages. He cautioned that without accelerating AI endeavours, Denmark risks lagging in global competition.

Danske Erhverv’s proposal highlights the need for better AI investment avenues, aid to local AI firms, significant fund allocation for AI projects, and training to uplift overall AI proficiency.

My take: At Pioneer AI (PAI), we agree with many of Dansk Erhverv’s observations and new proposals. Furthermore, we see them apply across the Nordics.

The Nordics risk falling behind in spite of a strong starting position. Our demographics, innovative spirit, and high salaries contribute to AI’s huge Nordic potential - as do our extensive IT experience in businesses and public organisations.

At Pioneer AI, we believe that the Nordics have the prerequisites to become leaders in AI, creating new international AI companies and existing companies’ competitiveness with AI.

How to achieve this includes our two proposals that support the initiatives:

DE proposal No. 1: Improve investment opportunities in AI and attract venture capital to AI/data-driven business models. For example, PAI enables investors to become co-owners of 100 early-stage AI start-ups in a wholly new and unique way. This only happens and scales because we at PAI use AI to oversee and help the 100 companies. Support for such business models increases opportunities for new AI start-ups.

DE proposal No. 2: Increase connectivity throughout the AI ecosystem. PAI's business model is based on collaboration and coordination between commercial needs and technical competencies. We actively connect STEM and business students to encourage new start-up companies. We also interact with companies and industries and ensure that businesses' needs and challenges are heard and understood in academia. This can also help start-up companies arise - after which PAI invests in them. Such networks must also be supported to make the Nordics reach their full AI potential.

Can AI Help Save the World?

Professor Serge Belongie, head of the Danish Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Copenhagen, offers an optimistic perspective on the future of AI, underscoring its potential to improve the world significantly.

Belongie says that AI, at its core, is a statistical tool driven by software, requiring human direction to function and generate outcomes. Although current AI can, at times, experience errors and biases, mirroring the prejudices and imperfections found in the data they are fed, Belongie is hopeful.

He stresses the transformative potential of AI as a powerful tool to address and solve some of our most pressing challenges, such as climate change. For example, AI could expedite the analysis of global satellite images to assess tree populations and inform reforestation strategies — a task that would be impossibly time-consuming for humans alone.

My take: AI’s immense potential as a force for good is increasingly evident.

Visionary leaders like Professor Serge Belongie and pioneering AI centres lead the way - as do AI companies and start-ups.

AI is already the foundation for groundbreaking solutions, and we will continue to see it grow, including in areas such as climate change and sustainability.

When Kennedy announced the Apollo Project with an ambition to put a human on the Moon, no one knew what innovations it would lead to. I believe that AI is a similar driving force. It will enable both established companies and innovative start-ups to develop applications that not only meet specific objectives but can also lead to broader societal benefits and advancements.

Solutions initially crafted for a particular domain often unveil versatile potential, finding relevance and applicability in diverse areas. Such dynamic interplay augments our ability to become more sustainable, underscoring AI’s role as an invaluable ally in our quest for a better world.

Denmark Announces AI Investment

The Danish government has announced new funds for AI. Initially, DKK100 million (about US$ 14 million) will be set aside for artificial intelligence research.

Minister of Education and Research Christina Egelund said that artificial intelligence will be an area where Denmark must be able to compete with other countries.

- We as a society must be intelligent about how we prepare ourselves to take it on in a wise way, Christina Egelund said to Ritzau.

My take: It is excellent news that Denmark is looking to invest in AI. That said, the DKK100 million is like a drop in the ocean. Goldman Sachs estimates global AI investments by 2025 to reach US$200 billion. Denmark’s new announcement is equal to 0.007% of that total.

To make the new investment count, we need to set specific targets and goals for what it should lead to. In business terms, the ROI has to be crystal clear. Without that, we risk wasting the new funds pursuing unrealistic goals and coming up second or third best.

I would suggest the following as areas that could support AI not just in Denmark but in the Nordics:

• Business integration of AI: Research that investigates how companies have and can integrate AI in specific functions.

• AI interaction research: Develop frameworks and best practices for interacting with AI that build on our strong UX background and expertise.

• AI as an innovation tool: Finding ways to develop frameworks and approaches that enable existing companies and start-ups to leverage AI for innovation.

🎙Nordic News Roundup

• AI helps during the hiring process of almost a third of all Swedish employees, new study shows. [SE] (VIA)

• Can ChatGPT save financial advisers up to 20 minutes of work per customer [NO] (Shifter) (Paywall)

• AI may be adding “associate psychologist” to its titles and help improve psychiatric care and shorten waiting times. [SE] (TV4)

• Swedish artist wins first AI art prize with image of two women embracing an octopus (Artshub)

• EU and Japan look to collaborate on AI [DK] (Version2)

• Many companies struggle to formulate concrete ideas about which problems AI could solve in order to create business value. [NO] (TU)

🛠️ Cool Tools & Companies

• QA Tech from SwedenAI offers an AI solution that combines the skills of a QA engineer with the speed of automated testing.

• Strise from Norway offers an AI-powered AML platform that offers a 90 per cent reduction in diligence time with KYC automation.

• Tailwind Biotech from Denmark provides AI-powered synthetic DNA design services that help biotech-based companies achieve more effective and efficient genetic engineering processes.

• Capalo AI from Finland offers an AI platform with maximisation and forecast functions for the energy industry.

Do you know cool tools or companies I should feature in the newsletter? Let me know!

🎧 Listen To

• AI Today - Madelene Stolpe, The Head of Digital Strategy, Health, City of Oslo, talks about how Oslo is exploring using AI technologies to help its citizens.

• After Work AI - Swedish AI podcast interview Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Director at Inventure VC, about how the company invests in Nordic AI companies.

• Techtopic [DK] - What will happen when AI can leverage the power of quantum computing?

📅 Training, Meetups & Conferences

• 24-26 October: 2023 Nordic Data & AI Week: Data Management and Data Science/Machine Learning. [Stockholm, Sweden]

• 31 October: NorwAI Innovate: Norway's most influential event on AI. [Trondheim, Norway]

• 8-9 November: Digital Tech Summit 2023: The heart of Nordic deep tech. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• 20-21 November: AI Sweden at Internetdagarna 2023: Three seminars on AI in Sweden as part of Internetdagarna. [Online]

• 4-7 December: Human-Agent Interaction 2023: The premier interdisciplinary venue for discussing and disseminating state-of-the-art research and results. [Gothenburg, Sweden]

• 14 March (2024): Applied AI Nordics: Make AI practical and understandable and inspire how to get value from AI in business. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• 17-18 April (2024): AI+: Get the latest updates from the world of artificial intelligence. [Halden, Norway]

Got an AI story or insight from the Nordics? Share it with me!

Reply to this email or connect on LinkedIn.

Until next time,

Peterhe Futurei