Language models are taking off

Language models are taking off

The NorwAI language model activities received national attention in 2023. The interest continues into 2024 with VIP political visits.

Meeting with a presentation on the NorLLM project.
Minister of Research and Higher Education Oddmund Hoel headed a delegation to NTNU curious to know more on the possibilities of Large Language Models.
Photo: Morten Antonsen, Adresseavisen
Three people in conversation at an office.
The government visit took a cherished turn when Sven Størmer Thalow, chair of NorwAI, underlined a good point to the minister and Jon Atle Gulla, director of NorwAI.
Photo: Morten Antonsen, Adresseavisen

 

 

August 2023

Our public introduction to present Norwegian Large Language Models took place in ‘Arendalsuka’ on 17th of August 2023. Together with Sven Størmer Thaulow from Schibsted and Yngvar Ugland from DNB NewTechLab the team from NTNU presented our largest language model, the NorGPT-23B generative model. Present were also two representatives from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, minister Sigbjørn Gjelsvik and state secretary Gunn Karin Gjul. The discussion afterwards was very encouraging, and there was a clear understanding that Norwegian-based language models are needed.

Five people discussing at a long table.
The former Minister of Local Government, Sigbjørn Gjelsvik, really called upon the panel at Arendal to brighten up at the Arendal event. From his right Yngvar Ugland, DNB New Tech Lab, Jon Atle Gulla, NorwAI, Sven Størmer Thaulow, Schibsted and Rolf Dyrnes Svendsen, NorwAI
Photo: NorwAI

September/October 2023

Tore O. Sandvik from the Labour Party, now state secretary of the Trade and Industry Ministry, visited us on 14th of September. Mr Sandvik also gave a presentation at our our national AI conference, the NorwAI Innovate, on trustworthiness of technology as October shifted to November.

A person presenting at a podium with ‘NorwAI INNOVATE 2023’ on the screen.
State secretary Tore O. Sandvik of the Trade and Industry Ministry has for a long time advocated for Norwegian Language Models.
Photo: Kai T. Dragland, NTNU

The first day of the conference paid considerable attention to language models. Professor Fredrik Heintz of Linköping, coordinator of the EU language project “Trust LLM” held a talk on ‘Towards Factual and Trustworthy Lange-Language Models’ while Per Kummervold at the National Library of Norway talked about the Library’s work. The industrial perspectives were presented by Daniel Pleus, Data Scientist Lead at Schibsted, with a talk about the media frontrunner’s work on language models, while Jon Espen Ingvaldsen of NorwAI updated the audience on NorLLM.

An individual presenting on large language model applications at the INNOVATE 2023 conference.
Professor Fredrik Heintz of Linköping University, coordinator of the EU financed TrustLLM project.
Photo: Ole Marttin Wold
An individual presenting at the INNOVATE 2023 conference.
Per Egil Kummervold of the National Labrary of NorwAI
Photo: Ole Martin Wold
An individual presenting at the INNOVATE 2023 conference.
Jon Espen Ingvaldsen of NorwAI
Photo: Ole Martin Wold
An individual presenting at the INNOVATE 2023 conference.
Daniel Pleus of Schibsted
Photo: Ole Martin Wold

 

November 2023

The new minister of Digitalization and Public Governance, Karianne Tung, came to Gløshaugen on 14th of November to further discuss the prospects of training large-scale Norwegian language models. These discussions have of course not been limited to government parties, and Venstre with Guri Melby and Grunde Almeland paid us a visit on 6 th of December. 

Four people sitting at a table during a meeting with a ‘NorwAI’ poster in the background
Minister of Digitalization Karianne Tung
Photo: Kai T. Dragland
Three people talking together in an office with computers
Student talk with the minister
Photo: Kai T. Dragland
Grunde Almeland of Venstre
Photo: Kai T. Dragland, NTNU

 

December 2023

At the end of the year both NTNU and UiO were invited by the National Library to investigate the value of copyrighted material in large-scale language models. This was an initiative from the Ministry of Culture and Equality, and the hope is that this work will lead to larger and higher-quality training datasets for even better language models in the future.

February 2024

The political interest for national language models continued into the new year. NorwAI made a pre-presentation on the next generation of models in Trondheim in mid February. On February 26th the minister of Minister of Research and Higher Education Oddmund Hoel came to visit NorwAI displaying deep insights into central questions and dilemmas of the speedy developments of large language models.

People in a meeting room
Head of Departement of Computer Science, professor Heri Ramampiaro sitting next to minister Oddmund Hoel in amusement during the visit. Photo: Morten Antonsen

The interest continues. On May 15th NorwAI will present four new language models, and plan to update our audience further at the upcoming ‘Arendalsuka’ in August.