I spent Wednesday evening at the famous Studentersamfundet in Trondheim, debating AI with three Norwegian members of parliament, Karianne Tung, who is Norway’s Minister for Digitization, Simen Velle, a representative for FrP, and Hege Bae Nylund, a representative for Rødt. The debate was expertly led by Liva Flo.

It’s always interesting meeting politicians in real life. I have been deeply concerned about Karianne Tung’s decree that 80% of the public sector should use AI now and 100% by 2030 – but in person she appeared both more knowledgable and more nuanced than she is often represented in the media. Simen Velle and Hege Bae Nylund are in the same parliament committee, and had this constant friendly joking repartee going between them. They’re all friendly and seemed open-minded and interested – not at all the impression you get of politicians from short TikTok videos and media sound bites.

We covered topics from education to data centres to AI art, so there wasn’t room for a lot of depth. Here’s the student newspapers’ report of the debate, or you can watch the debate on YouTube, but unfortunately the sound isn’t too good.

This photo of me explaining something is too good not to share, though!! Thanks to Studentersamfundet for an excellent evening!