APREX · EST. 2026
Norwegian language researchers are now sending a clear message to the government: the Norwegian state must take far greater responsibility for developing artificial intelligence that masters Norwegian — including Bokmål, Nynorsk, and the Sami languages. The call comes amid growing concern that international technology giants are dominating a field where Norwegian linguistic characteristics are easily overlooked.
The Language Council sounds the alarm
In an outlook summary published in March 2026, Language Council chair Ingrid Vad Nilsen and director Åse Wetås launched a sharp critique of the quality of current AI tools. According to Universitetsavisa, the two senior leaders warn that AI-generated texts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk contain what they describe as serious linguistic errors and shortcomings.
The concern goes beyond text quality alone. As users increasingly rely on AI for writing, the Language Council fears that standardised writing skills will gradually erode — and that without more domestic research and dedicated language technologists, Norway could lose its grip on its own digital language standards and cultural interests.
Without more domestic research and specialised language technologists, Norway may struggle to maintain control over its own digital language standards.
45 million kroner in the national budget
The government is not entirely inactive. The 2026 national budget proposes allocating 45 million kroner for an agreement between newspaper publishers and the National Library. The funds are intended to enable Norwegian language models to be trained on current, copyright-protected content — not just older texts.
National Librarian Aslak Sira Myhre has emphasised the need for modern, up-to-date textual material in the training process. Without access to such data, Norwegian models will fall behind their international counterparts.
The Language Bank and the Sami languages
The National Library's service Språkbanken (the Language Bank) plays a central role in making Norwegian language data available for technological development. The Library and the Language Council are required to collaborate on the further development of these resources.
The Sami languages are particularly vulnerable. The national AI strategy explicitly identifies Sami languages as "particularly vulnerable" and states that language technology is essential to securing their future use. The research groups Divvun and Giellatekno at UiT The Arctic University of Norway are actively working on Sami language technology and are cited in strategy documents as key actors.
Nordic cooperation
Norway is not working alone. The Nordic ministers of culture decided in October 2025 to fund a new Nordic network for AI language models, coordinated through the newly established centre New Nordics AI. The aim is to ensure that the development of language models reflects Nordic cultural and linguistic characteristics — not just English-language norms.
A North Atlantic policy document from the same period recommends, among other things, that countries develop concrete strategies for language data and establish government cooperation to introduce language accessibility measures by 2030.
What are the researchers demanding?
Common to the demands from language researchers is the need for increased funding for national AI research, better access to high-quality training data in Norwegian and Sami, and stronger coordination between universities, national institutions, and government authorities. The government has signalled its intention to establish both an advisory body and a regulatory sandbox for AI with an emphasis on privacy — but critics argue that the pace and level of ambition remain too low.
The source for this article is Universitetsavisa, which covers the research community's calls to the government.