In allying with AI, Iceland aims to protect its language and identity

By Elías Thorsson

REYKJAVÍK — ICELAND’S GOVERNMENT marked the inclusion of its language in the newest version of the widely discussed GPT technology on Monday with an event that looked at the future of small language in the digital age.

The event, titled “The future replies in Icelandic”, was organised to coincide with the release last week by OpenAI, of the fourth and latest version of GPT, a computer program that is capable of composing passable answers to questions by drawing on a body of text from the internet.

The new version includes Icelandic as the first language other than English to be included in the development of the latest version of the program.

Previous versions have been trained mostly using English and other major languages, which means that GPT doesn’t have the same abilities or breadth of understanding in smaller languages, the firm explained last week. The models have improved over time, but they don’t consistently produce clear and correct Icelandic translations.

In 2022, Iceland’s president, Guðni Th Jóhannesson (pictured), led a delegation to the US that met with Sam Altman, the chief executive and co-founder of OpenAI, to discuss a possible collaboration and the feasibility of incorporating Icelandic into the firm’s chatbot, an on-line application that is used to pose questions to GPT.

“We wanted to make sure that, in the digital age, our language and other small languages will continue to thrive,” Mr Jóhannesson said in his opening remarks at the event on Monday. “But we cannot go abroad and beg big firms. And that is not what we did when we went to Silicon Valley. We came armed with enthusiasm, knowhow and data.”

Since 2019, Iceland has invested heavily in language technology that can make computers literate in Icelandic, and officials view teaching the language to GPT as an important step.

“The preservation of our language is no small matter; it is the most important challenge any nation can face. It is a question of our sovereignty, identity and keeping to the roots of our people,” the prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, said.

Ms Jakobsdóttir joked about the anxiety she has felt towards AI after seeing The Terminator, a 1984 film that featured depicted AI in a monstrous light, but she admitted that the technology also has its benefits.

Those two elements were on display at the meeting’s endnote, as GPT composed an Icelandic poem about the value of small languages in the style of the “Hávamál“, a 164-stanza Viking-era poem, and then subsequently translated the work into English.

Rules its realm, rooted in its origins
The world’s diversity, a wealth of variation
In righteous communication seeking truth.

Iceland’s poets may have nothing to fear for the time being, but it is undeniably an important step for AI towards gaining Icelandic citizenship.

FURTHER READING
• 🇮🇸 Head start for Icelandic
• 🇮🇸 How Iceland is using GPT-4 to preserve its language.
• 🇨🇦 How do you say ‘narcissistic’ in Inuktut? Nunavut’s government and Microsoft want to know
• 🇨🇦 Facebook is now available in Inuktitut
• 🇨🇦 Nunavut heritage society marks anniversary with a language-preservation campaigns
• 🇨🇦 Microsoft adds Inuit language to translation app
• 🇳🇴 Sign languages
• 🇺🇸 How a newly relaunched website aims to revitalize Alaska Native languages
• 🇬🇱 Greenlandic language experts hope a new tool will help speed translations

BRIEFING | The Willow oil and gas project in Alaska has sparked opposition among the greens and concerns among the federal department that advises the White House on such matters. President Biden appears ready to approve it anyway

KEY FINDINGS
• The Biden administration said in February it would support a scaled-back version of the Willow oil and gas project amid the White House’s calls to the industry to expand production
• The Bureau of Land Management has endorsed a design for the project it says will  reduce the impact on polar bears and yellow-billed loons
• The Willow project area holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil, or more than the amount currently held in the US emergency reserve
• The project may earn Alaska and federal authorities $17 billion

ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE activists are rallying online against ConocoPhillips’ proposed Willow oil and gas drilling project in Alaska as the administration of US President Joe Biden weighs whether to greenlight the controversial plan.

A petition on Change.org opposing the project has gathered over 2 million signatures, while the hashtag #StopWillow has been trending in social-media posts.

Here are some details about the project:

What is the Willow project?

The Willow project is a $6 billion (€5.6 billion) proposal from ConocoPhillips’ to drill oil and gas in Alaska. It would be located inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 93 million-hectare area on the state’s North Slope that is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US.

Will it be approved?
President Biden’s administration said in February it would support a scaled-back version of the project.

The US Bureau of Land Management published the project’s final environmental review last month, selecting a “preferred alternative” that would include three drill sites and less surface infrastructure than originally proposed. ConocoPhillips had initially wanted to build up to five drill sites, dozens of kilometres of roads, seven bridges and pipelines.

A final decision could come as soon as this month.

The project had been initially approved by the Trump administration, but a federal judge in Alaska in 2021 reversed that decision, saying the environmental analysis was flawed.

What is its environmental impact?
According to BLM’s analysis, the design it endorsed would reduce the project’s impact on habitats for species like polar bears and yellow-billed loons.

But environmental groups remain staunchly opposed, arguing the project conflicts with the Biden administration’s promises to fight climate change and poses a threat to pristine wilderness.

“The Willow project would have a devastating effect on public lands and our climate, and approving it after passing the largest climate bill in history would be a giant step in reverse,” the Sierra Club said in a February press release, referring to the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Allowing Willow to move forward will pose a threat to some of Alaska’s last undisturbed wilderness, to the populations of wildlife that call it home, and to the public health of nearby communities and makes it harder to achieve our climate goals. We must end new leasing on public lands and conserving more nature to secure our climate future,” it added.

The BLM’s parent agency, the Interior Department, has emphasised that the selection of the preferred alternative was not a final decision on approval of the project, adding that it had “substantial concerns” about Willow’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions and wildlife.

In a statement, ConocoPhillips said the design preferred by BLM represented “a viable path forward” for Willow and said it was ready to begin construction “immediately” upon approval.

Why is Willow important for Alaska?
The Willow project area holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil, or more than the amount currently held in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the country’s emergency supply.

The project is important to Alaska’s elected officials, who are hoping it will help offset oil production declines in a state whose economy relies heavily on the drilling industry.

ConocoPhillips has said the project would deliver up to $17 billion in revenue for federal and state governments and local Alaska communities.

The Biden administration has also been urging US oil companies to invest in boosting production to help keep consumer energy prices in check.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

FURTHER READING

• Alaska’s DC reps lobby Biden to approve Willow oil and gas project
• As a new review gets underway, the future of a huge Arctic Alaska oil project is uncertain
• Biden administration backs smaller version of ConocoPhillips project
• A US federal judge throws out the approval of a major new oil project in Alaska’s Arctic
• Appeals court halts construction at ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in Alaska’s Arctic 

RESOURCES
• Responsibly Developing Alaska’s Willow Project (ConocoPhillips)
• Willow Project Would Be a Disaster for Alaska and the Climate (Sierra Club)
• Interior Department issues statement on proposed Willow project (US Department of the Interior)
• Bureau of Land Management publishes final supplemental analysis for Willow Master Development Plan (Bureau of Land Management)
• Oil & Gas Outlook & Permitting (Alaska Department of Natural Resources)
• NVN and City of Nuiqsut Comments regarding BLM Willow MDP Preliminary Final FSEIS Review (City of Nuiqsut and Native Village of Nuiqsut)

Arctic Business Journal Briefings offer readers a summary and analysis of current issues and trends, key firms and coming events. Articles include links to further reading and external resources to give readers a place to begin their due diligence. 

As a way to encourage discussion about topics, briefings will also seek to include opinionated commentary submitted by outside contributors.

By Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

ALASKA’S GOVERNOR MIKE Dunleavy, has launched a new task force to help craft the state’s overall energy policies.

The Alaska Energy Security Task Force is “to develop a comprehensive statewide energy plan that will evaluate energy generation, distribution, and transmission for the state of Alaska and its communities,” according to an administrative order issued by Mr Dunleavy on 23 February.

The task force, with 13 voting members and five non-voting members, is to deliver an initial report by 19 May, the order said.

“Despite Alaska’s position as a leading producer of energy, the cost of energy in Alaska, especially in our rural communities, is extremely high,” the Mr Dunleavy, a republican, said in a statement. “As everyone has been reminded by the war in Ukraine, access to and cost of energy are influenced by global events. I’m establishing this task force to create a plan that will reduce Alaska’s vulnerability to fluctuating energy markets by securing dependable and affordable energy for Alaskan residents.”

The task force will be focused on in-state needs, said Grant Robinson, a spokesperson for the governor. “Part of the plan the task force will produce includes identifying policies, programs, regulatory changes, and funding that could accelerate the adoption of energy strategies that the task force identifies. That work could be the basis for future legislation,” he wrote in an e-mail.

FURTHER READING
• University report aims to guide state energy policy
• Across Arcitc North Amercia, solar energy is gaining a foothold
• Alaska’s experience shows benefits — and challenges — of wind energy in Arctic
• Alaska’s governor wants the state to cut ties with banks who shun Arctic oil drilling

The 13 voting members are to include heads of relevant state departments and agencies and representatives of utilities, urban and rural communities, the energy and mining industries and other sectors, the order said. There is to be at least one member from a community dependent on Power Cost Equalization, the state programme that subsidises power in remote sites where electricity is costly.

The non-voting members of the task force are to be legislators and representatives of the federal Denali Commission, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the US Department of Energy’s Arctic Energy Office, the order said.

The order creating the Alaska Energy Security Task Force comes five months after Mr Dunleavy issued a different administrative order creating an Alaska Office of Energy Innovation. Among the stated responsibilities of that organisation, created within the governor’s office, was development of policies to lower Alaskans’ energy costs. That includes research into non-fossil-fuel sources like nuclear and renewable energy sources like wind and solar and study of carbon-capture technology, according to that 30 September administrative order.

The Office of Energy Innovation will oversee and provide support for the new Alaska Energy Security Task Force, Mr Robinson said.

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: [email protected]. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and Twitter.

“Friends of Russia are enemies of the rest of us, as simple as that,” says Finnish entrepreneur and investor Peter Vesterbacka

CONTINUING THE KIRKENES-SEVEROMORSK friendship agreement would put foreign investments into the Norwegian border town into jeopardy, according to Peter Vesterbacka, the Finnish entrepreneur and investor who was brought to fame by the Angry Birds video game he helped to create.

It is “very clear that this friendship agreement should be ended”, Mr Vesterbacka says. Severomorsk, he adds, could of course condemn the war, but if they don’t, “Kirkenes should end the friendship. As simple as that.”

Mr Vesterbacka continued his entrepreneurship after the success of Angry Birds, and his activities include involvement in the company that is planning a railway from Rovaniemi in northern Finland to Kirkenes, on the coast of the Barents Sea.

Kustaa Valtonen, a co-founder of Finest Bay Area Development together with Mr Vesterbacka, elaborates: “We do a lot of business activity in Kirkenes and would love to do more, but local attitude is very important to be aligned with the reality of a world that changed one year ago. We need to stand on the right side of history.”

A new friendship agreement was signed between Kirkenes and Severomorsk in 2016, two years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Last fall, the local council voted down a proposal by one of its members to abandon the agreement in protest of the war on Ukraine.

Severomorsk is not an ordinary northern Russian town. It is home to the headquarters of the powerful Northern Fleet. Due to its military strategic importance, Severomorsk is closed to outsiders not holding a special military permit to enter.

Very few from Kirkenes have ever been allowed in.

One of those who have is Rune Rafaelsen, a former mayor of Kirkenes. He has been there three times. The two most recent as an official guest at the annual Navy Day weapons parade, in 2018 and 2019. Taking part in the parades were veterans from Syria and the battlefields of the armed conflict in Donbas. On the waters of the Kola Bay, the navy showed off its surface warships and nuclear-powered submarines armed with Russia’s most potent weapons: ballistic missiles topped with multiple nuclear warheads.

Today, Severomorsk has only one sister city in addition to Kirkenes: Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic ruled by the authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kenneth Stålsett, chief executive of Sør-Varanger Utvikling, a publicly funded Kirkenes-based business development company, fears the lack of will to cancel the friendship agreement with Severomorsk could harm potential foreign investments.

“Kirkenes is a brand and no brands want a bad reputation and negative associations,” Mr Stålsett says.

He takes the reactions from Finland seriously. “Clearly,” he answers when asked by the Barents Observer if Kirkenes should cancel the friendship agreement with Severomorsk.

“The agreement is on a governmental level and has nothing to do with people-to-people relations the politicians are afraid to lose. Severomorsk, by itself, is a strange place to continue to have agreements with today,” he says.

Harald Sunde was one of the local councillors that last fall didn’t vote in favour of ending Kirkenes’s friendship agreement with Severomorsk. Today, he has changed his mind.

“I support disapproving the draft agreement from 2016,” Mr Sunde says and points to uncertainties in regard to the signed agreement’s validity. The question is whether the mayor could enter such an agreement without prior support from the council.

Mr Sunde expects the case to be on the agenda at the next council meeting in late March. Meanwhile, the governor of the county of Troms and Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost region, has sent a letter to the town-hall in Kirkenes recommending ending co-operation on topics of sensitive importance, given the “current security situation”.

The Barents Observer has previously reported about a section of the 2016 agreement stipulating co-operation on municipal technical matters.

In 2019, a delegation of Orthodox priests from Severomorsk visited to Kirkenes. They wanted to see and learn more about the city’s water-supply system.

The main water supply is some 10km south of the town. A pumping station and pipes are in the harbour area. The delegation wanted to see it.

Further insights, however, were not given as the mayor and the chief of police decided it was not a good idea to take the guests on an excursion that would reveal details about the water supply in the closest Norwegian city to its border with Russia.

Kirkenes and Severomorsk signed their first friendship agreement in 1988. Today, no-one in the council can recall who took the initiative and why it was considered to be a good idea to team up with the city that was the home of the Soviet Union’s most important navy base.

Mr Vesterbacka’s message is clear though: “Friends of Russia are enemies of the rest of us.”

He underscores his sentiment with a quote from Desmond Tutu, the South African arch-bishop who was the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If the elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

For Mr Stålsett, the road ahead is clear.

“Our local society has asked for more collaboration with Finland for years, and the doors are now open. If we really want a bright future, we should adapt and find new ways. The international society loves our region, so let’s put momentum into that and attract talent, collaborate and develop.”

He adds that there could come new possibilities in collaboration with Russia after the Putin regime collapses.

In addition to Severomorsk, Kirkenes (a part of the Sør-Varanger council) has a friendship agreement with Pechenga, the Russian council bordering Norway and home to the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade and the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade. The two brigades have sent thousands of soldiers to the war in Ukraine.

Andrey Kuznetsov, the mayor of Pechenga, shows support for the war by driving around in a car decorated with a large letter “Z”.

FURTHER READING
• From end-of-the-line to new frontier
• How Angry Birds and prospects of Chinese funding power visions of the shortest-ever route from China to Europe
• All aboard: Tickets go on sale for Finland-Estonia train tunnel, yet to be built
• Arctic railway not commercially viable, report says

Located in Kirkenes, Norway, just a few kilometres from the borders to Russia and Finland, the Barents Observer is dedicated to cross-border journalism in Scandinavia, Russia and the wider Arctic. As a non-profit stock company that is fully own by its reporters, its editoral decisions are free of regional, national or private-sector influence. It has been a partner to ABJ and its predecessors since 2016.

This article has been fact-checked by Arctic Business Journal and Polar Research and Policy Initiative, with the support of the EMIF managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

By Gwladys Fouche and Nora Buli, Reuters

OSLO — INDIGENOUS AND environmental activists, including Greta Thunberg, blocked access to several Norwegian ministries on Monday, expanding a protest to demand the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures.

Norway’s supreme court in 2021 ruled that two wind farms built at Fosen, in central Norway, violated Sámi human rights under international conventions, but the turbines remain in operation more than 16 months later.

Police began removing a handful of demonstrators from outside the finance ministry, a new target for demonstrators, while over a hundred demonstrators chanted “C, S, V”, the abbreviation of a 1970s Sámi slogan meaning “Show Sámi spirit”.

Meanwhile, campaigners pressed on with a demonstration at the nearby energy ministry, which also houses the transport and family ministries, and at the ministry of agriculture.

Ms Thunberg, an advocate for ending the world’s reliance on carbon-based power, has said governments should not allow the transition to green energy to be at the expense of indigenous Sámi rights.

“They should have seen it coming for violating human rights,” Ms Thunberg told Reuters when asked about the need for the protests, while she was sitting outside the energy ministry.

One of the campaigners said they would “close down the state, ministry by ministry” for as long as necessary.

“The state has let the Sámi people down,” Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told Reuters. “I hope some ministers will soon understand that the only way out of this human rights violation is to tear town the wind turbines.”

Reindeer herders say the wind-power machinery frightens animals and disrupts age-old traditions.

COMPLEX LEGAL QUANDARY
The energy ministry has said the fate of the turbines is a complex legal quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise, but that it could take another year to get a new decision in the Fosen case.

“The key is to get a new decision that can stand the test of time,” the energy minister, Terje Aasland, told Reuters after meeting with demonstrators outside his ministry.

“There are conflicts of interests and we need to handle them as best as possible,” he said. “We need to try to include indigenous human rights in a good way, not least ensure reindeer herding can have a safe future.”

Owners of the Roan Vind and Fosen Vind farms include Germany’s Stadtwerke Muenchen, Norwegian utilities Statkraft and TroenderEnergi, as well as Swiss firms Energy Infrastructure Partners and BKW.

“We seek to find … mitigation measures in dialogue with the reindeer herders and the ministry that ensure the operating basis and the Sámi opportunity for cultural expression,” Statkraft said in a statement to Reuters.

Roan Vind on Monday told Reuters it trusted the energy ministry would find solutions to allow the production of renewable energy to continue.

Utility BKW said it expected the wind turbines to remain in place, with compensatory measures to ensure the rights of the herders.

Stadtwerke Muenchen declined to comment.

(Writing by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Christina Fincher and Barbara Lewis)

FURTHER READING
• A year after supreme court verdict, Fosen wind farm still stands amid soaring energy crisis
• Indigenous cultures must not be forced to bear the brunt of global climate adaptation
• Norway wind turbines should be torn down, reindeer herders say
• The future is unclear for Norway wind turbines ruled a threat to Sámi reindeer herder’s rights
• Wind energy conflicts show how Arctic renewable energy projects can founder

Dreaming of living in the Arctic? The Russian state-owned enterprise that operates its settlement in Svalbard has an offer for you

By Thomas Nielsen, Barents Observer

THE PROMOTION OFFER from Arktikugol, the Russian state-owned enterprise that operates its Barentsburg settlement in Svalbard, is as straightforward as it apparently is alluring: “We invite you to move to Barentsburg.”

“We receive requests daily,” Daria Iakoleva told the Barents Observer. She works with Grumant, the travel subsidiary of Trust Arktikugol.

Moscow wants to keep Barentsburg as its stronghold in Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic archipelago where other signatory countries to the unique treaty have commercial and residence rights.

Traditional coal mining is no longer seen as sustainable to maintain the population, which has seen a sharp decline in recent years.

Europe’s ban on Russian coal hit Barentsburg hard, as the United Kingdom bought most of what it produced, and alternative markets in Asia bring added transport costs.

Attempts to boost explorer tourism have partly failed as Longyearbyen-based Visit Svalbard last autumn blacklisted Grumant in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine. With tourism in slow-motion and a declining population, flats and rooms stand empty.

This February, the advert inviting people from around the globe to move north began appearing on-line.

“Friends! We have great news for everyone who has always dreamed of living in the Arctic. If you work remotely, are creative, and are ready for a new experience, we invite you … to move to Barentsburg,” it states.

According to Ms Iakovleva, new residents can choose between either a room or a fully equipped flat. “We plan to expand the range in the nearest future,” she says.

Although Svalbard is part of Norway, foreigners do not need a visa or work and residence permits from Norwegian authorities to travel there. That said, someone from outside the Schengen-area must have a visa to travel to Svalbard, as the only flights are from Tromsø and Oslo on the mainland.

Sysselmesteren, Svalbard’s Norwegian administrator, does have the right to deny entry to anyone deemed unable to support themselves financially, and as most housing is employer-owned, it can be hard to stay for an extended period if you do not have a job.

Russia’s offer, however, makes that a lot easier. Ms Iakoleva quotes rates for twin rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens are available of 4,200 kroner (€385) per month. A two-room flat can be rented for 6,000 kroner per month. “Then you get a view of the bay,” she says.

In comparison, Airbnb rentals in Longyearbyen are at least ten times more expensive — and that’s if you can find something for rent for an extended period.

According to Svalbardposten, the Longyearbyen-based local news outlet that was the first to report about the rental options in Barentsburg, Longyearbyen is seriously short of housing, both for seasonal workers and permanent residents.

According to Ms Iakoleva, most requests for long-term renting “come from Russian-speaking people”.

Andreas Østhagen, a senior researcher with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, a Norwegian think-tank, reckons that, for Russia, maintaining a presence on Svalbard is primarily  a strategic consideration.

Svalbard’s position in the Barents Sea and its proximity to the Northern Fleet are aspects that have motivated Russia, and the Soviet Union before that, to have presence there,” Mr Østhagen explains.

He elaborates: “Having a settlement on Svalbard is part of the Russian narrative that they hold a special position when it comes to the archipelago. Although there might be individuals seeking to make a profit, the Russian state does not subsidise Arktikugol for that purpose. Still, we have seen for decades that Moscow is interested in finding new ways of maintaining a settlement without relying on relatively costly and ineffective coal mining.”

There are about 400 residents in Barentsburg, mostly Russians and Ukrainians. The town is some 55 kilometers from Longyearbyen, but the is no road connecting the two. People travel by snowmobile in winter and boat in the summer. Arktikugol operates a Mi-8 helicopter, mainly for transportation of staff between Longyearbyen airport and the heliport at Cap Heer, near Barentsburg.

Located in Kirkenes, Norway, just a few kilometres from the borders to Russia and Finland, the Barents Observer is dedicated to cross-border journalism in Scandinavia, Russia and the wider Arctic. As a non-profit stock company that is fully own by its reporters, its editoral decisions are free of regional, national or private-sector influence. It has been a partner to ABJ and its predecessors since 2016.

This article has been fact-checked by Arctic Business Journal and Polar Research and Policy Initiative, with the support of the EMIF managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.