Last weekend, I spent some time vibe coding a digital memory book for my son. Watching a few sentences turn into working software gave me a real Fingerspitzengefühl for the power of coding agents. Seeing is believing. What I was able to build in four or five days would have been impossible six months ago, or would likely have cost hundreds of thousands of kroner to develop professionally. It is hard not to be excited about where this technology is heading.
But the question I found myself returning to was not what I can build with AI. It was what kind of society we want to build with it. Or, more precisely:
How do we protect and strengthen the Nordic societal model in the age of AI?
If there is one thing that has struck me this year, it is how quickly the conversation around AI has changed. Over the past two years, the discussion has moved from models and capabilities to power, geopolitics, and national security. This demonstrates both the speed and power of the technology, as well as the urgency of acting.
We, the "middle powers," as Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney described countries like ours in Davos, need to collaborate to build a more cooperative and resilient world. In the global AI race, that increasingly means countries outside the United States and China. Collaboration is not a nice-to-have; it is a necessity.
Fortunately, collaboration is also one of our greatest strengths. In Norway and across the Nordics, we have high levels of trust, strong democratic institutions, world-class research environments, and a long tradition of working together across sectors and national borders. But momentum alone is not enough. We now need action.
The good news is that we are seeing real momentum. In April, NORA's owners appointed a new Board chaired by Laurence Habib, and I am very much looking forward to working with Laurence and the rest of the Board. KI Norge was launched on 3 June under the leadership of former NAV Director Hans Christian Holte. Norway now has six national AI centres, in addition to six AI-focused Centres of Excellence (SFFs) and Centres for Research-based Innovation (SFIs), and political awareness of both the opportunities and challenges has never been higher. What we need now is better coordination across the Nordic region and closer collaboration with like-minded countries such as Canada.
Collaboration has always been at the core of NORA, and strengthening Nordic cooperation has been a particular focus over the past few years. In June, we were fortunate to celebrate two initiatives that I believe move us in the right direction.
In Norway, the Research Council awarded funding for a new national AI collaboration arena. Together with Digital Norway, KI Norge, Sigma2, NTNU, NHH, and other partners, we will work to strengthen the connection between research, the public sector, and industry, and ensure that more Norwegian AI competence is put into use.
At the Nordic level, we established NAIP-HS—the Nordic AI Partnership for Humanity and Society—together with WASP-HS in Sweden and CAISA in Denmark. The initiative builds on the existing Nordic AI Partnership and extends our collaboration with a dedicated focus on the societal impacts of AI.
One thing I believe strongly is that research and science must play a central role in navigating the changes ahead. Researchers are at the cutting edge of this technology. They have often been thinking about these questions not just for the past two years, but for the past 10 or 15 years, or even longer. If we can better connect the research community with policymakers, public administration, and industry, I believe we can make better decisions as a society and develop more research-informed policies. In many ways, this is where the Nordic countries have some of their greatest strengths.
So, to return to the question I have been pondering:
How do we protect and strengthen the Nordic societal model in the age of AI?
I don't have the answer. But I do believe it is one of the most important questions we can work on together—as a nation, as a Nordic region, and as a research community. If there is one thing that gives me optimism, it is that we already have many of the ingredients we need. The challenge now is to bring them together.
Until then, I wish you all a wonderful summer, and I hope to see many of you in the KI-teltet during Arendalsuka.
Michael Solvang
CEO, NORA