Pioneer AI: Checking the Nordic AI Pulse.
Welcome to 2024’s 12th edition of The Nordic AI Pulse, the weekly newsletter from Pioneer AI, a Nordic-focused AI investment fund. Dive in for a roundup of AI news, deals, and insights covering the Nordic region.

📚 In This Issue:

1. Five Takeaways About Denmark’s New AI Supercomputer

2. Nordic News Roundup

3. Cool Tools and Companies

4. Please “Steal” This Startup Idea

5. Nordic AI Funding News

6. Podcast Insights

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

Pioneer Insights

Five Takeaways About Denmark’s New AI Supercomputer

It’s not every day that a new computer in Denmark makes it into Bloomberg, CNN, and Fortune. But the world is taking notice of the coming AI supercomputer for a good reason.

The computer will be part of a national centre for AI innovation and is a collaboration between Novo Nordisk Fonden, Danmarks Eksport og Investeringsfond (EIFO), and AI giant NVIDIA. Researchers and companies will have to undergo an approval process before accessing its superpowers. A committee will be set up to determine which applications should be approved.

In short, this has the potential to boost AI research, entrepreneurship, and startups massively.

Here are five reasons why the new computer and AI centre can be like a rocket booster for Danish AI.

1: More power to Danish researchers

The new AI computer is set to be ready for pilot projects before the end of the year, and Danish AI researchers will likely still be celebrating then.

The computer will rank among the top in the world in computing power. It means local access to what has previously only been available elsewhere – and for a steep premium.

Those who get access to the computer will be able to work faster. It is ground-breaking for Danish research and could lead to an explosion in new findings and results that could, in turn, lead to new solutions and companies.

2: Power existing core competences

Denmark is already showing international strength in areas like renewable energy and healthtech. As we have previously covered, this includes using AI within those areas.

The new supercomputer is a powerful tool for answering questions like what causes specific diseases, how wind turbines can be more powerful, and much more. As a result, it boosts already existing competencies and strengths.

3: Support the development of powerful AI models

We have previously written about whether or not Denmark should invest in developing Large Language Models (LLMs) – and if so, how. Large AI models are not limited to LLMs, but they provide an excellent example of the power the new computer represents. Training such a model could be done much faster with the new supercomputer.

The computer also equals new options and opportunities regarding what kinds of AI models we can create in Denmark – including perhaps a national Danish GPT.

4: Speed up discovery and development processes

If researchers and companies in the areas described above (or any other area where AI can make a marked impact, for that matter) get access to the new computer, it would be possible to speed up processes like drug research and do what would typically take three to four years in laboratories in under a year.

The same dynamic applies to developing new products and solutions in other industries.

5: International and market validation

Establishing the new AI supercomputer in Denmark, in collaboration with NVIDIA, equals a significant international endorsement of the country's AI capabilities. IT positions Denmark prominently on the global AI map and can help make it a leader in AI research and innovation. This extends to startups and companies that get access to the computer. For them, the fact that their solutions have warranted time on such impressive hardware will serve as a stamp of approval that increases brand recognition and attracts customers.

What do you think of the new AI supercomputer? And about our takeaways?Let us know via email or contact us on the Pioneer AI LinkedIn page here. 

🎙Nordic News Roundup

• This Danish insurance company has launched an AI-powered chatbot that is already outperforming the previous system. [DK] (Finanswatch)

• Who is AI best for - and how can it support those lagging in welfare metrics? [NO] (Dagensperspektiv)

• Sweden launches new AI strategy. The long-term goal is to become one of the top ten AI countries globally. Short-term goal: become better than Finland and Denmark. [SE] (TN)

• Denmark’sDenmark'sghs in on AI and its potential benefits. [DK] (DR)

• Is Norway’s Norway's to AI wrong? This professor says yes. [NO] (Finansavisen)

• A Swedish study has identified the nine industries and job functions most at risk from AI. [SE] (Kollega)

• Copenhagen municipality has used AI to slash waiting times. The AI systems have also helped close 1000 hard-to-solve cases. [DK] (TV2 Bornholm)

• Can AI help us find oil? This company thinks so. [NO] (Akerbp)

• Danish education expert shares best practices for teaching kids about AI. [DK] (Folkeskolen)

• Are Nordic AI startups being lured to move to Canada or the Middle East? [NO] (Shifter)

🛠️ Cool Tools & Companies

• Vital Beats from Denmark enables AI-driven diagnostics and treatment for cardiac patients with implanted devices.

• Amanda Ai from Sweden provides a marketing solution for Google Ads, which is automated and uses artificial intelligence.

• Earth Science Analytics from Norway offers AI-powered geoscience tools for the energy industry.

• Capalo AI from Finland uses multi-layered AI-based algorithms to optimise energy storage performance and earnings.

  Do you know cool tools or companies we should feature in the newsletter? Let us know!

💵Please “Steal” T”is St”rtup Idea

We would love to see someone build the following (and if you do, we might invest in you):

Introducing "InsightV”ice," an AI-p”wered solution that transcribes and analyses customer and focus group interviews, extracting insights and opportunities for businesses to enhance their services and products. Sophisticated natural language processing algorithms enable the solution to identify and extract nuanced customer sentiments and trends. Over time, predictive analytics and real-time feedback loops can be added to help companies proactively adapt to customer needs and market dynamics.

🚀AI Funding News

Select Nordic AI companies that have raised funds in recent months:

• Signal from Denmark

• Orbis Medicines from Denmark

• eComID from Sweden

• Subsets from Denmark

• Bionamic from Sweden

• BeCause from Denmark

• Hakio from Denmark

• Portchain from Denmark

• Xensam from Sweden

• Go Autonomous from Denmark

Congratulations to all of the founders and teams!

Pioneer AI’s top AI'se Nordic AI funding insights and highlights:

• Denmark will be home to one of the world’s mworld'serful AI computers. The computer will be part of a national AI centre created in collaboration with NVIDIA. It dramatically boosts Denmark’sDenmark'sions and the country’scountry'sstem.

• We took a further look at the last 100 Nordic AI company funding rounds. Our analysis showed that over 50% of the companies were founded in 2020 or later. This indicates robust growth and a healthy AI ecosystem where innovators constantly develop new solutions that attract investors' attenti’n.

• Another trend is that the average funding round size for “young” c”mpani”s (1-3 years old) is markedly lower than that for “teenage””compani”s (4-7 years old). The young companies raise an average of around US$700k, while the teenage companies raise an average of around US$3.5 million.

🎧 Listen To

• AI Sweden Podcast [SE] - discusses its AI strategy for Sweden and its role as a foundation for decision-makers.

• Digitaliseringspodden [NO] - looks at the potential for digital development and AI in municipalities.

• AI Revolutionen [DK] - looks to answer the question, how exactly does it look under the hood of ChatGPT?

📅 Training, Meetups & Conferences

Conferences

• 24-25 April (2024): Data Innovation Summit: One of the most influential Nordic events on data, analytics and AI. [Stockholm, Sweden]

• 25 April: Applied AI Nordics: Leading Nordic AI conference. This year’s suyear'sis how to move from opportunistic to strategic AI. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• April 27-28: SAIM 2024: Conference for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing, and Machine Learning. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• May 15-17: DevSum 20: International conference exploring the latest trends and technologies within development. [Stockholm, Sweden]

• May 24-26: ICMLT 9: The Ninth International Conference on Machine Learning Technologies is a forum for exchanges on current challenges in the machine learning field. [Oslo, Norway]

• June 10-11: SCAI Symposium 2024: The 14th Scandinavian conference on AI (SCAI) that brings together AI researchers and practitioners to present and discuss ongoing AI work and future trends. [Jonkøping, Sweden]

• June 10-14: HHAI 2024: The third international Hybrid Human Artificial Intelligence conference exploring AI systems that cooperate synergistically, proactively, and purposefully with humans. [Malmø, Sweden]

• July 18-19: ICAIAE 2024: Scientific conference for exchanging and sharing experiences and results of using AI for education. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• August 20-23: Robophilosophy Conference 2024: Social robots with AI: prospects, risks, and responsible methods. [Aarhus, Denmark]

• October 14-18: Process Mining Conference 2024: Industry and scientific conference on process mining. [Copenhagen, Denmark]

• October 21-22: Nordic AI Meet: Symposium early-career AI researchers to network, collaborate, exchange ideas, and form a Nordic approach to building AI solutions for the societal good. [Helsinki, Finland]

• October 21-23: D3A: The Danish Digitalization, Data Science and AI brings together a diverse audience to explore the latest trends and research in AI. [Nyborg, Denmark]

Meetups

• AI Copenhagen

• Aarhus AI

• Stockholm AI

• AI Community of Sweden

• AI Engineering Sweden 

• Oslo AI

• Oslo Generative AI Meetup

• Oslo AI Product Lab

Do you know an event, meetup or similar that you think should be on the list? Let me know!

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

Reply to this email or connect on LinkedIn.

Until next time,

Pioneer Venture AI,