I am currently travelling and researching in Norway and its beauty is endless and breath-taking. Norway is a rather narrow country in northern Europe and shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Sweden and Finland. Famous for its fjords, sea inlets between steep cliffs, it has many delightful tidbits of history that few likely know of like: the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo every year, it has the longest world’s tunnel, and Norway introduced salmon sushi to Japan. Since arriving on a Regent cruise ship, I have been sampling many traditional foods, especially the Norwegian meatballs, not to be mistaken for the Swedish meatballs.

Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and has a very high standard of living compared with other European countries, and a strongly integrated welfare system. Norway’s modern manufacturing and welfare system relies on a financial reserve produced from natural resources, particularly North Sea oil. In terms of GDP per capita Norway is ranked number 8 in the world. With little over 5 million residents, the country has developed a very modernized infrastructure, especially with the internet.

At an average speed of 52.6 Mbps, Norway has the fastest mobile internet connection in the world, followed by the Netherlands, Hungary, Singapore and Malta. With this high speed infrastructure, the country is well positioned to have a leading voice on AI.

The Government’s goal is that investments in artificial intelligence within research, research-based innovation and development should be concentrated on strong research communities where cooperation between academia and industry is central, such as in the centres of excellence and in the centres for research-based innovation.

The country has been consistently forward thinking and in 2018 a consortium, called NORA, was set up to strengthen Norwegian research and education in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and related disciplines. The consortium comprises of Norwegian universities and research institutions engaged in research and education in artificial intelligence: the University of Agder, the Arctic University of Norway, OsloMet, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian…