Ingen kvinner i Oljefondets AI-team: – Det er kleint

Oljefondets AI-team leader Nicolai Tangen has long been a vocal advocate of artificial intelligence (AI). At Oljefondet, AI is integrated into all aspects of their work, and on Wednesday, he spoke at Norges Handelshøyskole (NHH) in Bergen about the importance of AI. The small auditorium at NHH clearly demonstrated the keen interest in Tangen's words, with the absence of female students standing out.

When Tangen displayed a picture of Oljefondet's AI team, there were no women represented. Tangen emphasized that the only flaw in this team is the gender balance, which is quite poor. He quickly moved on and said that they will quickly continue without women on this team, which is crucial. Tangen pointed out that they have teams with more women and encourages more talented women to apply to the AI team, but there is still a significant task ahead.

Finding talented women for this team has been very difficult, and that's why they are here at the university to talk about these issues and attract better candidates. Under Tangen's leadership, the percentage of women in Oljefondet has increased from 25 to 35 percent. Tangen has been actively reaching out to Norwegian educational institutions, but he realized that he was mistaken when he thought no one had asked Oljefondet what they needed in terms of competence.

This became clear when he received no response from the head of Oljefondet's student union, and NHH did not receive a response either. This week, NHH finally received a visit. While students usually want a picture with the chief, Tangen wondered if they had applied for a job at Oljefondet. Only two students from NHH applied for summer internships at Oljefondet, while 14 were from NTNU.

Now, Tangen hopes to see more NHH students at Oljefondet, as they are quite technical, and he hopes this group will join. During his guest lecture on Wednesday, Tangen mainly discussed what he enjoys most: AI. He still has full confidence in the technology, despite the rise in AI fear. This began with a researcher from Anthropic, Jacob Coxon, who stated that there was a 10 percent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next ten years.

Many have recently demanded increased government oversight, including Bill Gates, who believes AI could cause immense damage. Tangen is not deterred by the recent end-of-times prophecies. "Personally, I don't think AI will wipe us all out, but ideally, we should regulate models and ensure they are controlled before they are released," he told E24.