Language experts to report on speech and text to the Storting

Language technology has come of age

Language as speech and text will shortly be on the Storting's table. The Norwegian Board of Technology (NBT), which is the Norwegian Parliament’s radar for gaining knowledge about new technology and its consequences, is launching a multi-stage project on language technology.

- Language technology has come of age with new breakthroughs. What will it mean to us? asks project manager Jonas Engestøl Wettre at the Norwegian Board of Technology. 

To answer, he has gathered six experts in the field to enlighten the Storting, other public offices and the public in general. Among them, head of NorwAI, Professor Jon Atle Gulla is appointed. 

The Board of Technology, established in 1999, is an independent public body with a broad set of tasks related to assessment, advice, dissemination and public debate on the possibilities and consequences of new technology. The council also delivers knowledge directly to the Storting so that the legislature is up to date with the technical development in society.  The council also reports to the Government on tech advice. 
The aim is to map how the technology spreads and develops and identify and address some key democratic and political questions.

Speech and text 

- We distinguish between speech and text. After discussions with the Norwegian professional community in the field, we have chosen to split the project in two. It is important for our further communication that we can communicate on complicated topics step by step, but of coruse also to deliver long reports when that is necessary, says Jonas Engestøl Wettre

He adds that speech also presupposes text, but text is a larger and more complex subject area. First, they start by publishing a policy brief on the topic of speech technology and voice analysis. Later, in the follow up on the subject, NBT will expand and examine opportunities and challenges of large language models (LLM).

The expert group will hold its first meeting at June 2nd and plan for another two meetings before giving its first report om speech. 

-By the help of artificial intelligence (AI), machines are rapidly improving their abilities to speak, recognize and understand human language. They are also getting better at deducting information about us, such as age, height, and chronical diseases, based on how we speak, says the project manager.

The powerful voice

As a result, our voices are used for several new purposes. From coffee makers to large industrial machines – you may control them through your voice. Life becomes easier, and society more inclusive, but the development also increases the amount of voice data in circulation in society. What we say and how we say it may reveal sensitive information about us, which might be misused and commercialized for profit. The large tech companies today dominate the market for speech technology and invest heavily to develop it, according to the Board ofTechnology’s project overview. 

-Shall speech technology become a force for good, it must understand all languages and avoid discrimination. Today, it works best with large languages, such as English and Mandarin, although other languages are slowly catching up. Succeeding with speech technology on a large scale, requires sufficient access to voice data and computational resources, says Jonas Engestøl Wettre. 

Important questions remain

The experts will zoom in on some of the most pressing political issues:

• How to secure access to voice data for developers, while protecting privacy?
• How to make sure voice data retrieved from open sources are not misused?
• How to train AI needed for speech technology, while keeping a low carbon footprint?
• How to accelerate and spread the use and development of speech technology as a force for good?

The expert group:
Torbjørn Svendsen, NTNU
Jon Atle Gulla, NTNU
Sjur Nørstebø Moshagen, UiT
Line Adde, Aidn
Per Erik Solberg, Nasjonalbiblioteket  
Knut Kvale, Telenor