Opening address by the Prime Minister at the Cutting Edge AI seminar in Oslo

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Dear friends,

Jeg vil først si til alle skoleelevene – på norsk: Det er utrolig kult at dere er her. Dere sitter alle her på de første rekkene. Dere skal leve lengst i landet, med alt det vi snakker om nå, så det er bare utrolig bra.

This is ‘the Kavli week’, celebrating the Kavli Prize, here in the Norwegian capital. Now, why do we have this important week, here in Norway. Fred Kavli was born in 1927 up in Molde, near the coast, and at the age of 14 this young man had his first enterprise where he was developing wood pellets for fuel for cars. – So, the green transition started, at an early age. But he was an entrepreneurial man. He went off, across the Atlantic to Montreal and then to California, and he put a text in the Los Angeles Times, and I will quote; "Engineer seeking financial backing to start own business". So, there we have the American dream and the Norwegian dream, coming together.

So thanks to this, a fabulous life happened. And today we can celebrate the Kavli Prizes, the Kavli Foundation, all the laureates that got their prizes yesterday. We congratulate them, we admire them, we are stunned by what they do, and how they bring knowledge forward.

I would like to thank the Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters and the Kavli Foundation. I have followed this every year, throughout the years now, and it has really become a big event. It is a kind of ‘a mini-Nobel happening’ around science.

I would also like to say that we are especially honored, Professor Russell, to have you here. It is really lifting our discussions on this very critical issue and bringing us knowledge.

So, for my short introduction, first, we talk about ‘artificial’ intelligence. I think it is pretty big. So you know, I think we have to – well, some of you are students in philosophy: Is the word ‘artificial’ the right word? I'm not going to spend more time on that, but I think that AI is so present and so powerful, so perhaps we have to make it, the word, more ‘direct’?

I have four observations; on knowledge, on opportunities, and then as a government, we have to think about control, and research.

Knowledge

First, on knowledge.

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in the Opening ceremony of the University of Oslo this semester. It's a very unique and proud event. And I told the students, as you tell students, and I also told the students at the University of Bergen last year, and now here in Oslo, that – of course – what they will learn in the coming years will help shape what Norway will be in the future:

When you enter university or go into work life, it will really make a difference; you will get knowledge about new medical approaches, or how are we going to phase out fossile fuels, or how we are going to make the renewable energy transition. The list is long. – And, I was thinking, you know, in a historic perspective, in year 1813 – that was before Norway had its little glimpse of independence in 1814 – this university (was established and it) had just 18 students and five professors. Today, there are 26,000 students and 7,200 employees. This summer, 110,000 new students were offered places at higher education across Norway, including 12,000 at this fine university.

So this tells us, in a way, in a short time, how our country has changed. We have more than 300,000 students in Norway in total now. When I was a student, in the early '80s, we were about 40,000. So, even in recent years, there has been a profound change. And this tells us about the size of the Norwegian model – which I hold dear, and I think it is extremely important: Higher education is accessible to all, regardless of your background. In Norway, higher education is covered by and for the society as a whole. And we are among the very few countries still holding on to that policy. I believe we should make an effort to keep it that way. So, we have had an education revolution and a knowledge revolution.

I often ask this question when I meet students, talking about history: Why did people emigrate from Norway in the late part of the 19^th century, in the 1850s, '60s, '70s? Why? Why would they leave a country that had vast amounts of oil and gas in the North Sea? Why would they leave a country that had waterfalls that could create renewable energy? They could have water stored in magazines up in the mountains, a unique resource? Why would they leave a country that had fjords where you could do fish farming?

You know the answer, they didn't know. They had not thought about it. Then, they got to know about it; knowledge evolved and the rest is history.

Today, education for all is about generating ideas. And I'm thinking, you know, 100 years down the line, what will my great-grandchildren say? – They really didn't know, in 2024! So, what is going to happen? There are a lot of exciting things ahead.

If you look at the famous painting by Edvard Munch, on my right; the old man teaching the young boy there. Now I feel it is a bit the other way around; his grandchild at eight sitting, saying ‘Grandpa, come here and take the Time travel experience’! And this brings me back to the virtual reality that I find sometimes scary – but also exciting.

You have said, Professor Russell, that “machines are beneficial to the extent that their actions can be expected to achieve our objectives”. I think that is a good quote. And it’s all been about control. Who is in charge? Is it us, people, democracy? Or is it something else? I think we should reflect on that.

Opportunities

That brings me to my second point – about the opportunities.

So, let me start from this point; I am an optimist on this. You know, I often quote the union leader who was asked; "Do you fear new technology?" He was a union leader on metal workers. And normally, a union leader would be fearful of new technology because his colleagues may loose jobs if new technology comes in. But this guy was a Swedish union leader and he later became prime minister. He said; "No, I don't fear new technology. I fear old technology”. – Which is an optimistic perspective.

And I think, in the Nordic countries, we say that we can take on new technology and we can live with the transition, because we take care of people in the transition. We give them new learning, new opportunities. In Norway, we loose more than 300,000 jobs every year; they are ‘phased out’, and new jobs, more than 300,000 are ’phased in’ because we accept new technology.

So, think about – you know – new vaccines, electric vehicles, smartphones, solar power; the speed and spread of the technological development; so then, what are we able to find out with AI? And again, what will our grandchildren say in a few years about how things were moving forward today?

We need – as a society – to work to obtain more relevant, useful knowledge in order to do the right things. And my role as Prime Minister and Oddmund (Hoel), as Minister of Research, our role is to try to find out how we can introduce sound and solid knowledge. And we have to make the right policies to make that happen. It's not easy – because there's no script to look at on how to do this. That's the challenge of the changes.

But then there is this: Knowledge is rarely simple and straightforward. It is complex, the information is enormous, and the options are so many. Obviously, when used in the right way, AI can really accelerate knowledge in ways we need it, make use of it, sort through it, filter it.

I ask myself, how can we use these new technologies and how can we make them available? That's why we are speeding up the use of AI in the public sector in Norway, for instance in the health sector. We aim for 80% of the public sector to have adopted AI by the end of 2025. I will visit Ahus (the hospital) outside Oslo a bit later today – to see how they use new technologies to get waiting lines down. And obviously, there are unique opportunities to move forward on all this.

Control

And that brings me to my third point: With our knowledge and unique opportunities, how do we control all this?

Opportunities versus restrictions is always a difficult topic. Isn't it? – I mean, alcohol is nice, too much is not nice. – Everything that is available to us.

So, take for example the issue that all children now have the mobile phones available to them. Some say that 2007 is the defining year in human history because that's when the smart phone came, that’s when Apple put it out. And we see that this brings opportunities with many negative effects. – Noise, lack of focus, less learning, social exclusion. Some people say that the downward spiral in mental health among youth from 2012 is directly linked to how this world of screens is now occupying the place. 

And we are now taking, as you know, mobile phones out of schools during school time. This is happening, I think it's right. We are working on setting an aged date for when you can use it, and this will probably be controversial. If we set a date for the children, they will not like it. Parents may be also asking questions, but we have to move in this direction.

At a much, much higher level – or scale – you, professor Russell, has warned governments against not doing enough to safeguard against the dangers posed by future super-intelligent machines, and I quote you again; “How do you maintain power over entities more powerful than you?” It's a very important question. Sometimes we ask, as governments; there are capital and technological forces out there that are really challenging governments. But that's a primary competition. There is an unknown knowledge base driving, challenging us. And we have to move into it. It's a very good and quite terrifying question.

So in order to regulate, we need international cooperation, no doubt. For Norway, the most important part is what the EU is doing, we've been following this very closely, in order to introduce the same legislation, in parallell, here Norway.

But we have to move beyond that, and I believe that we should, even as a small country, have an ambition to tell the larger powers that they have to cooperate on this. So there cannot be an open hostile competition between China, US, Russia, and emerging powers. And I will bring with me that message when I on Sunday go on a plane to China for my visit. I don't know whether that will be shocking for the Chinese president, but I will tell him, I come from a very technological open society in Norway. And we have to work on this together. You have to work on this together with your American, or French, or other partners.

We have our data protection regulation, the Equality and Anti-discrimination Act, and the Working Environment Act. This is also already there, and AI has to respect it. It's not something they can bypass.

Another issue, very small issue that we’ve not mentioned. AI will be extremely energy-intensive. We are really not taking that into account. Minister Karianne Tung told me that a normal Google search – we all make several every day – requires 0.30 Wh (watt hour). While AI-powered Google search requires 8.89 Wh. 30 times more. So, if you start to calculate on that with massive data centers, it's going to be a huge challenge to provide enough energy to run this.

And let us not forget the big picture: There are 700 million people in the world without any access to electricity or power, especially in Africa. So, this is raising another big issue.

Research

And then, my final word, since we are in a scientific environment on research: We must organize this together, and that's what Oddmund (Hoel), the Minister is doing, what we, the government, is doing, putting money into research.

Last year, we launched an initiative to increase AI research by one billion kroner, or 100 million dollars, over the next years, on different sectors. That's a big amount of money when a government makes decisions, but if you reflect on the fact – that compared to the money out there in the private sector – it is very small. And again, with all the brains being put into this on the research side, I really feel sympathy with the brains on the regulatory side, trying to match this in a meaningful way. But let's leave that.

We work on research on the consequences of AI and on the digital technology for society, and research into the digital technology in itself, for instance, digital security, and research into digital technology and how it can be used for innovation.

We have established, as you know, a Ministry for digitalization and public governance, and we are working to create a digital infrastructure which will make it possible for all at different levels to access these technologies. The big companies, Telenor, Equinor, Statkraft, they will do this by themselves, but most companies in Norway are small companies. They have five to 10, 15 employees; so we should have an infrastructure in line with our social model – so that people can access this in a way. – So stay tuned.

Now, one thing is the government's responsibility to regulate, and another is the responsibility of the researchers for the technology they develop. So, dear friends, I would like us to put that topic on the agenda more often: How do we train the next generation of researchers? How do we make scientific advances that can be useful to our fundamental needs? Ethics, science, and the public is one of your fields, Professor Russell, so I guess you will touch upon this, and I'm very happy that we have your insight here to be shared.

In sum, my aim is that we can achieve a higher quality of public service, a higher quality of democracy, and that we can move forward with the old vision; that knowledge that is shared by more is knowledge to the benefit of society. So, my final point here is that we should also work hard – and that is really on my agenda – to cooperate to make AI safe and we should not be dominated by ‘forces’ outside ourselves. – So, welcome to this fantastic hall, and thank you for your attention.

 

• More information on the conference and the Kavli Prize