How will AI change our daily lives and professional landscapes? We turned to Sverker Janson, Director at the Centre for Applied AI at RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden for some answers. The Centre is a seven-year pioneering initiative aimed at fortifying the nation's journey towards sustainable, competitive, and open societal advancement through the application of AI. By fostering collaborations between research excellence and innovation partners, this initiative has crafted a unique platform poised to propel Sweden to the forefront of applied AI.
But the times they are a' changing and the interest from investors in women's health is finally growing, following a greater market demand and more awareness of both efficacy and side effects differentiating between men and women. Slowly, we are becoming more clever.
One of the companies that is at the forefront of women's health is Gesynta Pharma, now entering a clinical phase II trial of their lead candidate vipoglanstat as a treatment for endometriosis – a severely life-limiting disease affecting millions of women. In fact, 190 million of women worldwide live with this painful, chronic disease. To raise awareness of the condition, March is named 'endometriosis awareness month' so it is very timely that they are now recruiting a key competence for their team.
AI will permeate every aspect of life
Sverker foresees AI’s ubiquitous presence across all professions and industries, with advancements driven by a dual approach: sophisticated, high-value AI technologies adopted by major corporations, alongside accessible and affordable solutions like GPT-based chatbots utilized by individuals with diverse expertise levels to streamline processes and support various functions.
“AI will permeate every aspect of life, in all professions and industries. Either the value creation of new AI technology is so high that companies are willing to invest large sums of money now, even though it may be expensive and difficult to do so. It is mainly large pharmaceutical companies that can afford to develop and implement AI in various processes. The other type of AI, which everyone is exploring, is very easy and cheap to use, for example chatbots like GPT, that works as a component in various systems to automate processes and tasks.”
Reflecting on the present landscape of AI in Sweden, he emphasizes its omnipresence and the varying rates at which it permeates different sectors. Notably, the life sciences industry stands out as a trailblazer in AI integration.
“It is mainly large pharma and tech companies that have extensively adopted many AI methods. Companies like AstraZeneca and Ericsson invest significant amounts in using AI to, for example, identify drug candidates or various other stages in drug development.”
With AI’s capacity to perform tasks previously requiring human intervention, challenges such as job redundancy and a shift towards specialized skill sets emerge. At the same time there are many positive aspects of AI augmentation, Sverker frames it as a catalyst for human empowerment, enabling individuals to enhance productivity and create greater value for society.
“The job market will be very tough in various areas. But the need for people who are very knowledgeable and have deep expertise in their field will stay, it will be harder to just be average. I expect a centralization regarding who has the most ability to do things with AI technology and own systems, they will naturally be incredibly wealthy.”
Simultaneously, many of our work tasks will undergo changes, with increased emphasis on maintaining the machines and AI tools.
According to the Swedish Agency for Digital Government, authorities, municipalities, and regions would save 140 billion SEK each year if they were to implement the AI technology available today. The major challenges include a shortage of expertise, access to useful data, knowledge about available technology, as well as legal and ethical issues.
“And there is too little money in circulation to enable the collaboration that might benefit society even more. Companies hold tight to their budgets, the public sector has very little money, and big players like the Tax Agency, for example, which have all sorts of good uses for AI, are facing budget cuts that make it difficult for them to continue developing more AI-oriented solutions.”
He continues:
“Personally, I think Sweden is lacking in taking a grip that enables this development. There are no problems with the prerequisites otherwise; there is great openness, many different contexts where different actors meet, but it becomes very sparse if there is no money for development.”