The new AI CoE will be lead from UiO/dScience and is called Integreat - The Norwegian centre for knowledge-driven machine learning. Ingrid Kristine Glad and Arnoldo Frigessi will lead Integreat, and it will be co-directed by Lilja Øvrelid and Arild Waaler from the Department of Informatics at UiO and Robert Jenssen from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Robert is the leader of the SFI Visual Intelligence, a centre for research-based innovation lead from UiT. Note also that NORA’s most recent member, the Norwegian Computing Centre, is a partner both in SFI Visual Intelligence and the new CoE Integrate.
As stated by dScience, the mission of this project is to “radically transform machine learning (ML) by exploiting knowledge together with data to make methods that are more accurate, sustainable, trustworthy and explainable. In contrast to the data-centric paradigm of today’s machine learning, Integreat will develop theories, methods, models and algorithms that integrate general and domain-specific knowledge with data, laying the foundations of the next generation machine learning.” We invite you to read the complete statement made by dScience.
In several of the other CoEs AI will be important. Especially, the Center for Digital Narrative at UiB has a much-needed humanistic perspective on AI. The centre is led by Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg, and aims to "investigate new forms of digital narrative in electronic literature, digital games, social media and AI-driven storytelling" from a humanistic perspective. The project will be interdisciplinary, and its goal is, according to Scott Rettberg from UiB, "to provide a broader understanding of how algorithms change the way we tell the stories that shape our culture". Read more about the project here.
NORA.ai congratulates all the grant winners from the Norwegian Research Council and celebrates that so many projects focused on data science, ML, and diversity in technology were awarded funding. Financial support for groundbreaking research continues to be one of the foundations for the development of this field. NORA.ai will continue to advocate for more significant financial support for projects that aim to create the technologies for the future and ensure that these technologies abide by the highest ethical standards. As Klas Pettersen, CEO of NORA.ai, states,
"I am thrilled that Norway will now have a pure AI CoE, and also a CoE focusing on AI from the sociological perspective – a much needed perspective! I hope the financial support for AI will continue to increase in the coming years. We are building the technology of tomorrow, and research within this field needs continuous and greater financial support. Different countries are significantly increasing their financial support within AI --this needs to happen in Norway as well. Financing these CoEs is an important first step in the right direction!"
This articles was originally published on the 5th of October, 2022.