Nordic lights? National AI policies for doing well by doing good

Getting ahead on the global stage of AI technologies requires vast resources or novel approaches. The Nordic countries have tried to find a novel path, claiming that responsible and ethical AI is not only morally right but confers a competitive advantage. In this article, eight official AI policy documents from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are analysed according to the AI4People taxonomy, which proposes five ethical principles for AI: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice and explicability. The principles are described in terms such as growth, innovation, efficiency gains, cybersecurity, malicious use or misuse of AI systems, data use, effects on labour markets, and regulatory environments. The authors also analyse how the strategies describe the link between ethical principles and a competitive advantage, and what measures are proposed to facilitate that link. Links such as a first-mover advantage and measures such as influencing international standards and regulations are identified. The article concludes by showing that while ethical principles are present, neither the ethical principles nor the links and measures are made explicit in the policy documents.