The state of AI in the US is precarious; it looms dark over the economy, as the forecast of 300 million jobs vanishing in 10 years enters our national story. We are faced with a vast and terrible displacement that will wreak social havoc, and we are shackled to a political machine that will be all but useless in charting a course through the resulting morass.
But elsewhere, the picture isn’t so grim. Some countries are already getting AI right. Out front on this one is Norway.
Situated in Northern Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula with Sweden and Finland, Norway quietly leads the civilized world in many domains. It is breathtakingly beautiful, clean, and prosperous, falling in the Top 10 of the Highest Quality of Life Index and Highest Human Development Index (the US isn’t on either list). It’s No. 4 on the world-wide GDP-per-capita list (the US is No. 8). And it’s where they hand out the Nobel Peace Prize every year.
Its five million inhabitants enjoy top-notch public infrastructure, including the fastest mobile Internet connectivity in the world. Not surprising in the country that built the longest tunnel on Earth.
Norway is clearly a place where they get things right. And, per Forbes, AI is one of those things.
In Norway, the government has negotiated a partnership between the country’s industry and academia to form a collective AI research community committed to the safe, effective development and deployment of new technology. This alliance – NORA, the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium – is all-inclusive, covering AI, robotics, machine learning, and other related disciplines. There are 16 members, including the nation’s leading universities and research labs.
The dysfunction and distrust that pervade the national political and social discourse in the US doesn’t exist in Norway. Its citizens place high levels of well-earned faith and confidence in both its public institutions and private industry. And it’s in this healthy context that the Norwegian government has committed to a set of guidelines to which NORA has committed:
artificial intelligence that is developed and used in Norway should be built on ethical principles and respect human rights and democracy;
research, development and use of artificial intelligence in Norway should promote responsible and trustworthy AI;
development and use of AI in Norway should safeguard the integrity and privacy of the individual;
cyber security should be built into the development, operation and administration of AI solutions; and
supervisory authorities should oversee that AI systems in their areas of supervision are operated in accordance with the principles for responsible and trustworthy use of AI
Associated tech challenges that vex the US and seem to defy solution, such as data privacy, are already high priorities receiving serious attention there; data privacy in particular is overseen by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, which has created and distributed guidelines for the handling of metadata and implementation of effective data stewardship, requiring that organizations of all kinds take responsibility for managing their data well in-house, with attention to the legal issues surrounding its governance.
Another big AI/data problem in the US is that of bias in datasets, which can corrupt even the most well-meaning AI development effort, leaving the resulting app untrustworthy and even possibly malicious. The NDPA provides guidance in avoiding that bias.
There is also the problem of ‘black box’ AI, the product of deep learning processes that produce inscrutable algorithms that lack transparency. While the NDPA has no canned solution for that problem, it has not been shy about communicating the seriousness of the problem, in turn encouraging NORA to address it.
All of this is not to inspire a wave of Norway Envy; it’s simply a ray of hope to suggest that however dire the AI picture might be today, we have strong evidence that it is possible to get it right, if we’ll just pay close attention to those who are doing it better.
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