Once a year we are gathering the ecosystem together to share the learnings and insights connected to the research and innovation tracks of the Trusted Digital Societies program, led by Tietoevry and including more than 100 partner companies and research institutions. The Showcase 2023 event has taken place face-to-face in Keilaniemi, Espoo and brought together a wide range of stakeholders. We are thrilled to share a few insights and takeaways in this summary.
In his opening words Ari Järvelä, Managing Director of Tietoevry Care, emphasized Tietoevry's vision for Trusted Digital Societies programme: to build a sustainable future for societies through open communication and collaboration.
Status of AI
The keynote from Taneli Tikka discussed the growth of AI adoption and the upcoming EU legislation for AI. He mentions some noteworthy new developments in the sphere AI:
- Smaller, more specific language models are emerging. In specific use cases, they can outperform larger models due to the overwhelming amount of data the large models receive. Smaller models are better focused to work in specific industries.
- A recent study* presented a model that pairs a model of its surroundings with a language model. It can predict the outcomes of actions. It emulates the way children learn – they understand consequences and chains of events.
- Also, the evolution of robotics combined with AI is swiftly moving forward. For example, you can ask for a hammer, but if the robot doesn’t find a hammer, it can offer a rock that can be used as a hammer.
The EU’s proposed legislation for the use of AI is problematic. The matrix of industry specific regulation is very complex. It may also cause confusion and increase costs of using AI.
"We risk handing over the advantage to the countries outside of EU who deal with less regulation," warns Tikka.
Ecosystems enforcing the responsible use of AI
The panel discussion, hosted by Ksenia Avetisova, Strategy Development lead at Tietoevry, explored topics such as the ethical and responsible use of AI. Trust was identified as a key element in technology development. Trust is also essential for ecosystems to work. Building trust requires openness and transparency, including being open about mistakes and failures.
"The data is almost always bias, but we need to acknowledge it and know how it is bias. And figure out how it can be corrected", explained Riikka Lindroos-Järvitalo about the transparency with data.
For an ecosystem to work, it requires a joint goal and seeing the benefits for all participants. The guests opened their expertise and knowledge about the topics connected to successful collaboration between private and public sector, the speed of adoption of innovative solutions, the possible challenges – and their solutions – of engagements including both SMEs and large companies and public organizations.
Karin Wikman from Business Finland refers to a recent study: "SME's participating in collaborative projects are more successful, turnover vice and profitability vice, than those companies that are funded by other tools."
The panel discussion developed a few points from the keynote speech, mainly motivating the audience to take an active role in shaping the EU regulations, as well as really to consider the responsible and best use of AI to shape up the positive user experience of the new services.
Keith Thomas, from Heartnet, highlighted the role of people developing the technology: "We will need to take control on how the technology is used. Some of the EU directives maybe slow down the progress, but ultimately they should be crafted in a way where less harm could be done."
The panel also discussed how can we ensure inclusiveness when building digital societies. Building accessible technology requires human and technology interaction, and understanding the value for the end users.
“Understanding the value creation dynamics is the key element,“ says Peter Ylén from VTT. “If the people, who are in principle are not so digital-savvy, see something that is really valuable to them, they do all the effort to learn and use the technology.”
The mission continues
The mission of the Trusted Digital Societies programme is to develop affordable, accessible, and trusted digital services for citizens. As the Showcase event and the demos highlight, a lot has already been accomplished, but there are still challenges to be solved and room for more ideas and partners. If you would like to join our ecosystem, don't hesitate to contact us. Visit the programme's website to learn more about the targets and and how to get involved.
We are participating in Business Finland's Slush 2023 side event "6G Bridge – How to Engage with Leading Companies' Ecosystems?". Come to meet us at Happiness Lounge at Slush 2023, on 30 November 2023, at 8:30–11:30AM. Learn more and register.
* University of Florida paper on Reasoning-Via-Planning, October 2023 / Shibo Hao & al. And that “the RaP model outperforms chain-of-thought models”
Demos from research areas
Electronic invoicing has been a huge step in improving the efficiency and sustainability of bill payments: consumers are now used to receiving paperless bills via banking apps or e-mail, and to paying those bills online after logging into their providers or bank account. The next leap forward for consumer payments convenience – and improved cashflow for companies – is to enable one-click or automatic payment of invoices via RTP services. However, there are a couple of steps that need to be taken before this next level becomes reality.
Read a blog post by Sami Uski to learn more
Demo presented by Sami Uski
Data driven tools to plan optimal locations for new power plants producing renewable energy
Green energy transition, blog post by Fredrik Jansson
Demo presented by Fredrik Jansson & Antti Seppälä
Energy efficient large language model execution. Generative AI for code generation.
Advancing Trust-Based Digital Societies, blog post by Iftikhar Ahmad
Demo presented by Iftikhar Ahmad
This demo illustrates underlying architecture, key tenants with AI and ML based logic through which Tietoevry is supporting its customers and ecosystem in enabling business led decision making through Generative AI driven Situational dashboard.
Demo presented by Himadri N Das
360° Wellbeing is a remote patient monitoring solution that shifts the care from hospitals to patients’ homes and enables more tailored treatment as patients' condition and response to treatment is known better.
Knowledge-based management in the wellbeing services counties, blog by Aapo Pietiläinen and Werneri Tuompo
Demo presented by Heta Wuorinen