Necessary with national AI strategy

Moderator Aurore Belfrage and Peter Kurzwelly from AI Sweden summarize impressions from today's conference.

Over 3,000 participants from 78 countries attended Sweden Innovation Days,'s digital meeting, which Vinnova and others invited to discuss the development of AI in a number of different areas such as mobility, democracy and climate. Here you can read the content and some of the conclusions.

Nationell AI-strategi

All speakers agreed that an AI strategy is necessary for Sweden to be a global leader in applied AI. The strategy is needed for us to work effectively, have a common direction and have a chance to be world leaders when it comes to solving global challenges in applied AI.

Two countries have developed national AI strategies, Canada and Japan, where Canada has already made large and long-term financing efforts. They have also focused on research and built AI hubs around the country. I Japan has a "Moonshot" programme to focus on three challenging areas: aging, the environment and modern research. Japans AI-strategi focuses on building a strong base of knowledge through specific AI educations at all school levels where the goal is for 250,000 students to participate.

See the section on national AI strategy

AI for industry - training and collaborations

Increasing the demand for AI is important according to Amy Loutfi at Örebro University. Gratis AI-utbildning is needed to increase knowledge throughout society. Access to data is important for small and medium-sized companies and the data must not be stopped by regulatory obstacles, said Silvio Meira from The Digital Strategy Company in Brazil. The volumes also need to be large, where public actors and large companies can be a good partner. There are 50 AI advisers in 18 centers to support and increase knowledge about AI in small and medium-sized companies throughout Germany, said Dörte Nielandt - Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

See the section on AI for industry

Transform healthcare through AI

AI would have a more prominent role in transforming healthcare if there was a greater focus on health care instead of healthcare. Given that, we could work even more innovatively with prognosis / diagnosis and prevention. To get there, a behavioral change is required, where the entire care system is on track. It also requires collaboration where the hospitals / those who own the patient data and also the large companies are included and contribute. To succeed in getting people to stay healthy, access to data is required that innovators can use for the development of new solutions, for example. algorithms that can predict disease. It is important to ensure that the data is organized in a democratic and accessible way.

Markus Lingman, this year's AI Swedish at Region Halland, ended the session with: "Insights must lead to behavioral change, until then all data will have some value"

See the section on how healthcare can be transformed through AI

Fight climate change through behavioral change

AI has great potential for climate change if we succeed in addressing three points: direction, diversity and distribution, said Victor Galaz from Stockholm Resiliance Centre. Dennis Pamlin from RISE said that "AI is part of the problem rather than the solution today related to climate change". That companies today work with AI by adding AI tools in existing "old" systems, which creates disruption rather than sustainability. The need to involve new actors in the dialogue around this, not just "the usual suspects" was also discussed.

The H&M group provided concrete examples of the challenges that the clothing giant has relative sustainability: overcapacity. With the help of AI, they succeed in planning and calculating capacity so that there will be less strain on the climate. Arti Zeighami also highlighted how central it is to behavior change because AI is largely about people and processes.

See section on how climate change can be combated with the help of behavioral changes

Tomorrow's mobility - partnership is the new leadership

The megatrends that emerged during this session were "autonomous - shared - electric & connected". Legislation, reduction of CO2, sustainability and customer focus were also mentioned throughout, as well as the overall picture of how logistics is a driving factor. The need for a systemic approach is great and in order to be able to achieve an electrical and autonomous future, electrification is required. Anna Westerberg from Volvo Group said that productivity, "uptime", fuel efficiency and safety are important areas to both develop and offer. This is done through software-based offers and solutions. Anoop Chawla, Indian Institute of Technology, India agreed and said "Tech must go hand in hand with society otherwise society will not accept the technology".

See the section on tomorrow's mobility

Our future democracy - how do we ensure that technology benefits everyone?

Att AI is very much a matter of democracy, everyone in this session agreed. Everyone needs to know what the technology means and how it is used. Like many other technologies, AI reinforces existing differences. Who takes responsibility for the decisions that AI makes or recommends? Henri Verdier from Government Office in France, considered that the power within AI lies with a few. Technology is moving fast forward and many are falling behind. Therefore, a global agreement is needed on how AI should be used to ensure that technology benefits democracy.

Elena Kell, Women in AI and H & M Group emphasized that only 22 percent of women work in the AI area, which means that women are not involved in future development work. Diversity and inclusion are fundamental components of equal and ethical AI.

See the section on our future democracy

Take part in the whole day: Sweden Innovation Days - Day 1, The Talks