AI research to remain largely without EU recovery funding in Finland
Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI fears Finland is left behind in the development of new technologies as investments lag behind other countries.
Petri Myllymäki and Samuel Kaski hope that the importance of AI research will not be overlooked. Photos: Matti Ahlgren / Aalto University and Kalle Kataila.
The EU stimulus package is meant to lead the European economy into a new and sustainable growth after the downturn caused by the covid pandemic. On the EU level, there are hopes that the funding will be a decisive step in the development and implementation of AI technologies.
In Finland, too, AI has popped up in the discussion over the recovery package. In the current plan outlining the use of the funding, though, AI research is largely bypassed.
”As opposed to what someone might think on the basis of the news coverage, this funding is clearly not intended to be used for AI research to any significant extent”, FCAI director Samuel Kaski says.
In March, the government presented its preliminary proposal for how to use 2,1 billion from the stimulus package. AI is mentioned several times in the plan, and it is also noted as one of the most important aspects contributing to our future technological competitiveness. Most clearly, AI is present in connection to the enhancement of leading edge technologies.
The actions proposed in the plan, however, concentrate most of all on applied research and test environments, and the planned investments are limited. 10 million euros are intended for these purposes, and AI shares this funding with 5G/6G and quantum technologies.
In practice, then, the current plan seems to leave AI research – and especially long-term, curiosity-driven research that makes groundbreaking innovations possible – largely without recovery funding.
”This is investing for the short term. That is needed, too, but it is not enough”, Kaski says.
A substantial share of the recovery funding is intended for the so-called green transition. Research relating to this may well later on bring investments also for AI applications. According to Kaski, though, this is not enough to retain the needed level of AI experts in Finland.
Finland will deliver its final plans on the use of the recovery funding to the EU later this spring. Overall, Finland is expected to receive 2,7 billion euros from the package.
Competitors to invest billions
According to Kaski, Finland was awakened to the importance of AI early on. This gave us a good start in the race for innovations and researchers. Now, the benefits acquired at this point are threatened, as competitors one after the other decide on investments several times bigger than Finland seems prepared to make.
”Many European countries are investing several billions in AI in the upcoming years, and North America and Asia surpass even this by far”, FCAI’s deputy director Petri Myllymäki explains.
Kaski is afraid that the development will eventually render Finland uninteresting for AI researchers, who are internationally immensely sought-after. This would mean the end of new innovations, too.
”If we invest in applications, we also need to invest in developing new knowledge. Investing only in applications means that we eventually run out of people to come up with the innovations.”
The growth potential of AI is enormous: It has been estimated that the positive influence of AI technologies on the world economy is about 16 000 billion dollars by 2030. The countries that now invest in the development most will gather most of the benefits. In Finland AI, if properly utilized, has been estimated to have a potential economic impact measured in billions annually.
"Currently, it looks as if Finland won’t be able to properly benefit from the growth potential of AI. With the planned investments, Finland will not be one of the winners. Instead, despite the good starting point, we may well be one of those falling behind and eventually paying for the profits of the forerunners”, Myllymäki says.