AI lab at the municipalities in Norrbotten

For the past three years, the Norrbotten Region has been leading work on population supply. The goal is to get more people to want to move to Norrbotten. The municipalities' immigration pilots have wanted to investigate how AI can be used to facilitate their work with reception capacity and attractiveness. This autumn, the company Driftwind is therefore leading an AI lab in the form of workshops for the municipalities in Norrbotten on behalf of the region. What can AI help with?

AI affects several departments or administrations within a municipality and therefore other interested parties have also been given the opportunity to participate. The workshop in Haparanda at the end of September brought together school, cultural, business and rural development developers, immigration services and managers from community planning and offices from Haparanda, Kalix and Piteå municipalities. A previous workshop has been held in Luleå and another will be held in Kiruna at the end of October.

Most of the participants testified that they have tried working with AI through tools such as Chat GPT or Microsoft's Co-pilot. It seems to be used mostly as an aid to managing texts, to get help with the creative side in addition to cleaning, structuring texts and writing reports. And it becomes clear that so far it is mostly used out of a less individual need. In the discussions it became clear that they see the potential in being able to streamline procedures, analyze large amounts of data in administrative processes, perhaps develop welfare services, be a diagnostic support, solve staffing and demographic challenges and so on.

Lars from Driftwind took the participants on a historical journey around technology development and AI.

Risk and potential

During the day, AI was also put into a historical and public perspective. What is AI used for today and what could it be used for in the future? What can be done and what cannot be done from a legal perspective? What could be the risks and what is the potential? What has already been done by different actors; why, when, where, how and for whom?

Christer from the company andFRiends was involved via link and told how the Gothenburg Opera created a AI bot for the character Sandwolf from the children's play of the same name. It was a success for the opera.

Christer's call is to see AI as an energetic workmate, to be irreverent and curious about the technology, and last but not least - to lab, test, play, and above all, DO!

Christer from the company andFriends provided inspiration.

The news lab delivers fake news

During the lab part, the task was to create a fake news story and a true one. It became clear that it is easier to cheat with text than images, which tend to look like Russian propaganda images.

One piece of news was: “Haparanda and Tornio have formed their own state.” It turned out to be considerably more difficult to make true news out of the same statement.

Another piece of news was: "The pit in Haparanda will become a symbolic void, in collaboration with Tornio".

A third piece of news was: "Norrbotten becomes its own country – the president is elected by snowball fight."

The fourth news was: "Haparanda and Tornio - a new era of cooperation and unity".

Leadership is important

The big unanswered question towards the end of the day is what we could do from a larger perspective? What could we do with the help of AI for the development of Norrbotten? What do we want to do, and is it possible to implement it with existing structures?

The dialogue concluded that leaders are needed who are willing to change and support a learning culture from both a strategic and practical perspective. And it is through DOING that we will be able to be a player in the development.

The day ended with everyone making an action plan for continued work, of course with the help of AI tools.

The work on population supply and attractiveness has been carried out through the North Sweden Green Deal Attraction project (2022-2023) and the Brygg Project – Receptor Capacity and Attractiveness, which will end in the fall of 2024.

Text and image: Stina Almkvist