"EU leads the way with initiatives for common European laws and regulations around artificial intelligence, which I believe are urgently needed. With highly educated populations and democratic traditions, the European countries are in a good position to be world-leading in digital technologies towards a sustainable and democratic development of our society", said Deputy rector at the University of Bergen and leader of the steering group for UiB AI, Pinar Heggernes in her opening speech.
Ambassador of Norway to the European Union, Rolf Einar Fife, welcomed guests to the reception, where the steering group and various invited guests from different organizations and companies were presented with UiB's work in artificial intelligence.
"It is a pleasure to welcome you here at Norway House. Artificial intelligence is increasingly important in a turbulent world - and you are doing a solid job in this field at UiB," said Fife in his welcome address.
Useful meetings
In addition to the official UiB AI launch, the steering group has had meetings with various partners and stakeholders in Brussels over the past few days to present the work being done on artificial intelligence at the University of Bergen, and not least to highlight the breadth of AI activity at UiB.
"I belive that UiB AI can contribute to a joint European effort on artificial intelligence to put Europe at the forefront of scientific and technological development. It has been extremely useful for us to become better acquainted with European policies, funding schemes, and collaboration opportunities in the AI field," says Heggernes.
She is supported by the head of UiB's Brussels office, Charlotte Eide.
"The meetings UiB AI has had here in Brussels over the past few days have been very useful. I now believe that 'everyone in Brussels' knows about UiB AI and the activities happening in artificial intelligence at UiB. I hope we can continue to work on positioning UiB and UiB AI in Brussels and Europe going forward," says Eide.
Several of the representatives whom the UiB AI delegation met during their meetings in Brussels highlighted two elements of UiB's work on artificial intelligence and digital knowledge as impressive and unique:
The broad and interdisciplinary approach to artificial intelligence at UiB with perspectives from many disciplines, distributed across several faculties in research and education, as well as the DIGI package of digital understanding, knowledge, and competence small courses available to all UiB students.
