Election platform
Motivation I feel nervous about the future but inspired by university democracy. I anticipate a difficult period ahead of UiO. The way we work and think is shifted around by, among others, geopolitical friction, war, and authoritarianism, by national security considerations, by tightening university budgets, by eroding academic sovereignty, and by artificial intelligence (AI). Values matter. A university needs professional management, ethical judgment, rational decision making, and plurality of views. If elected to the University Board, I would feel honored to represent permanent academic staff and contribute broad international experience, in-depth knowledge of UiO, personal academic values, and my perspective as an interdisciplinary AI researcher.
Staying the Course Society and the national government make clear demands of UiO, but one way or another university funding will likely shrink further. UiO cannot but
strengthen budget control and put effort into securing and growing income. Decision making needs to be transparent, fair, and plausible. At the same time, UiO has a unique profile to maintain – as the oldest and broadest research university in Norway. To some degree, UiO needs to follow the money, but the university must not evolve into a “credit point factory” or sacrifice its disciplinary breadth. This balancing act calls for a shared sense of ownership and respect for democratic structures.
Diversity and Openness In my view, UiO has a decent mindset regarding equity and inclusion, but not all is good on the UiO campus (of course). Underrepresented groups, for example by gender and cultural or social background, experience challenges. At the same time, there is growing uncertainty about international collaboration and welcoming visitors or staff from around the world. I would like UiO to intensify its structures and routines for involvement of new, international, and diverse staff, and to value and support involvement in European and global collaborations on teaching and research.
Responsible Artificial Intelligence As an AI researcher, I see a curious blend of overblown expectations and disinterest in profound consequences. Generative AI is reshaping society, but that does not mean UiO has to rush ChatGPT-like services into all activity as quickly as possible. UiO should play to its strengths and pursue both technology development and research into AI consequences and risks, to allow the university and society at large to navigate based on empirical knowledge, with a dash of conservative skepticism. Responsible AI comprises perspectives of, among others, sustainability, ethics, philosophy, politics, law, education and social sciences.
Digital Sovereignty Somewhat ironically, I am a “fan” of the HR self-service portal and administrative back-end introduced some years back – not because the system has a visionary architecture or slick user interface, but because it is an IT infrastructure developed and hosted in Norway. The market power and societal impact of a handful of cloud juggernauts is well known, in principle, yet UiO devotes insufficient consideration and effort to open standards, open source, and independence from monolithic ecosystems. Working with colleagues in other parts of Europe, I often feel inspired by open, self-hosted collaboration alternatives to, for example, Microsoft Teams and Google Docs.
Short Biography I have studied Linguistics, German and Russian Philology, Computer Science, and Computational Linguistics at Berlin, Volgograd, and Saarbrücken. I have worked in different countries and cultures, among others at the German Research Center for AI, Stanford University, and a failed Silicon Valley start-up. I first joined UiO in 2002, as a researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN), and was appointed professor at the Department of Informatics (IFI) in 2007. At IFI, I have directed multiple study programmes and served as research group and section manager. For the period 2021–24, I was elected head of department. In 2025, I participate in the European university alliance Circle U and two EU-funded research projects on open language models. I believe I have an in-depth understanding of UiO and the Norwegian academic context, which I combine with an international background and keen appreciation of academic values and traditions. I am married and have two bi-cultural children.
No generative AI was used in writing this text.
Nominators
- Maja van der Velden, MN
- Nils Grushka, MN
- Arild S?etorp Waaler, MN
- Andrei Kutuzov, MN
- ?zgu Mira Alay-Erduran, MN
- Andreas Austeng, MN
- Geir Dahl, MN
- Sten R. Ludvigsen , UV
- Sven Peter N?sholm, MN
- Bernd Etzelmuller, MN
- Susanne F. Viefers, MN
- Phillip H?fliger, MN
- Pooya Zakeri, MN
- Michael Welzl, MN