The Paradox of the AI Billion

The article was published in E24 on May 22, 2025 (Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images)

Authors: Endre Dingsør (Co-founder Forte Digital and initiator Choose European), Morten Krogh-Moe (CEO at TellusR).

In September 2023, the Minister of Digitalization announced that one billion NOK would be allocated for research on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology over the next five years. In 2024, a goal was set that 80 percent of the public sector should use AI by the end of 2025.

Changed world order, changed digital strategy?

With promises of efficiency and innovation, the Norwegian and European digital sectors have become heavily dependent on international technology platforms and particularly American cloud services. 

This dependency is now causing increasing concern for national control, security, and competitiveness. We can draw a close parallel: Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 turned Europe's view on energy policy upside down. Russian gas had been cheap and convenient. The collaboration on the Nord Stream gas infrastructure suddenly proved to have a high price tag. 

The issue of digital sovereignty is no longer just theoretical. Following recent geopolitical shifts—such as a more unpredictable U.S. policy—it is natural to question what would happen if foreign authorities or technology companies suddenly restricted access to these critical services. This issue is very real. What if access suddenly disappears? 

This is not only about operational reliability but also about privacy and legislation. The Data Protection Authority warns that the rules currently allowing the use of American cloud services might quickly tighten with political changes in the U.S. that weaken privacy. (3) 

Perspectives on national security and preparedness make the dependency even more critical. Professor Olav Lysne—who led a government-appointed committee on national digital control—describes the situation as follows: "We are on the back foot, waving our arms and do not quite understand what we are facing," and challenges the authorities to examine how vulnerable we are due to our foreign dependency. (4)

The fact is that Norway has for many years almost uncritically built our IT systems on platforms from Microsoft, Google, Amazon, among others. 

The dependency paradox

The positive investment in AI and focus on skill enhancement and use in the public sector now challenges our digital sovereignty.

In the attempt to strengthen our own AI competence—we will at the same time intensify the dependency on the same foreign platforms that we now need to scrutinize with a critical and security-political perspective. The more the public sector and business deploy AI solutions based on proprietary tools from American companies, the greater the entry barrier for national and European alternatives becomes. 

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle where our own investments benefit American companies, while we lock ourselves more firmly into systems we neither own, control, nor fully understand.

What does the Minister of Digitalization think about this dependency paradox?

(Read the article on E24: https://e24.no/teknologi/i/qPaXj0/ai-milliardens-paradoks)