Minutes of the French-Norwegian Day 2018
On the 11th of October, the French-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual French-Norwegian Day on the topic "Artificial Intelligence" at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo. Near 200 participants and experts were present to discuss and tackle different topics related to Artificial Intelligence. The conference was animated by Cathrine Foss Stene, Partner at Implement Consulting Group, starting with an interactive session about the participants' expectations for this event: possible ways of cooperation between France and Norway on this topic, its consequences and challenges.
In the morning, the keynote session presented Mr Adam Bonnifield, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Airbus and Mr Ahmed Khamassi, Head od Data Science at Equinor who shared some insights about how to make their AI strategies efficient. Following this session, Mr Tor Olav Mørseth, CEO of Digital Norway, invited the participants of his panel to share their golden keys on how to make AI work for their organisation: "Working on scaling, trying to get people positive about change, getting control over the data to make it accessible". They also higlighted the need to work together together but to compete in order to create a sustainable impact. Mr Marc Chemin, Global Head of Data Science and Analytics Insight & Data at Capgemini moderated the second panel about how AI is disrupting the Finance Industry. Trust in data, realtime transactions and smart business models are both challenges and opportunites in this field. The morning part ended with the presentation of Mrs Najmeh Massoudi, Global Technology Leader for Smart ships at Bureau Veritas and Lilian Røstad, Head od Cybersecurity Center at Sopra Steria showed us how paradoxal AI truly is as it enables new digital, physical and political threats but also solves some cybersecurity problems.
After a refreshing break, Mr Christian Bendiksen, Partner at Brækhus tackled the legal implications and responsibility of Artificial Intelligence warning about a real shift between the ethical dimension and the law as an introduction to the following panel on Ethics. In the afternoon, French experts talked about France’s vision on artificial Intelligence and the opportunities for cooperation with Norwegian companies. Mr Lionel Grotto, CEO of Paris Region Entreprises, presented the need of trans-sector cooperation and the creation of a research network as the one present in Paris, which is becoming an AI hub. A new dynamic is on and Mr Ludovic Bodin and Mr Jean-Luc Dormoy from France AI Hub would like to work on AI with Norway on the Mobility, Health and Environment sectors. Mr Christian Borch moderated the last (but not least) panel of the day about "Need for a European vision on AI" with high-level guests such as Mr Johan H. Andresen, Chair if the Council on Ethics of the Global Pension Fund. This new technology presents real challenges to control it and this is why Europe needs to step up to create guidelines which will benefit users with much more transparency. We also had the pleasure to welcome pupils from the French School in Oslo who asked questions to French and Norwegian experts during the panel dedicated to AI & Ethics. They shared their concerns about future of work, how legislation and a regulatory authority should be designed and to what level humanity can keep control on AI.
This conference was the opportunity to learn more about AI and its consequences on our society today. We would like to thank all the speakers and moderators for enlightened us on this burning issue.
In the evening, the French-Norwegian business community gathered at Gamle Logen to enjoy a prestigious Gala Dinner and to listen to several musical performances directed by Andreas Sønning. It was also the occasion to reward the Laureate of the Fransk-Norsk Trophée 2018 to Lerøy Seafood France, in presence of the ambassador, Mrs Kristin Skogen Lund and many other guests. In addition to Lerøy's successful and longstanding presence in France, the Jury valued the innovation they developed with the French retailer Carrefour to use the blockchain technology for traceability of Norwegian Salmon.
It was a an inspiring and successful day. Many thanks to our sponsors and partnerswho have made this event so successful : Air France – KLM, BI Norwegian Business School, BNP Paribas, Capgemini Invent, Peugeot, Schneider Electric, Sopra Steria, Technip FMC, Total, The French embassy in Norway, The royal Norwegian embassy in France, Business France, Forskningsrådet, l’Institut français, Oslo Kommune, Digital Norway, Implement Consulting Group, Olivenlunden 1830, SebastienBruno, Gioia, Vinhuset and Åpent Bakeri
