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Nyhet2023-05-23

Over 500 ideas generated at Atea AI Hackathon

Over 80 municipal employees from over 20 Swedish municipalities participated in Atea AI Hackathon, organized in collaboration with Microsoft Sweden and AI Sweden. The aim of the hackathon being to strengthening welfare, the participants explored concrete ways to leverage the potential of next-generation AI to solve problems and demonstrate how easy it can be to make progress in the AI journey.
Tony McCarrick på AI Hackaton

The event took place the 16th of May at Microsoft Sweden’s headquarters in central Stockholm, where Microsoft's Vice President, Tomas Floberg, was present to meet the participants and kick off the event on stage.

"Wow, I'm so impressed to see so many creative people from municipalities in Sweden, along with experienced coaches, coming together and demonstrating a strong desire to create change with a multitude of ideas. The engagement of Swedish municipalities in AI development and how technology can improve the lives of our citizens is positive and crucial for Sweden's continued competitiveness. This is a great starting point for important work, and now it's important for municipalities to take these ideas forward into concrete projects," says Thomas Floberg, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft Sweden.

From idea to prototype in 4 hours

The theme of going from idea to prototype in 4 hours focused on idea generation, idea evaluation, and prototyping. Over the course of four hours, the participants got to discover the power of generative AI. The day was characterized by high creativity, and in total, the participants generated over 500 ideas, which were then narrowed down to ten selected proposals. Each proposal was presented in 120 seconds during a fast-paced pitching round.

"It was fantastic to hear all the creative proposals that the participants developed throughout the day. There was a high level of creativity among all the proposals, and I'm excited to see how many of these ideas we can realize and scale up to create greater value throughout the country. I believe the event contributed to both citizen and climate benefits for society at large," says Tony Mc Carrick, Strategic Advisor at Atea Sweden.

Bilder från AI Hackaton

Participant at the AI ​​Hackathon together with Atea's AI coaches

Sweden's Minister for Digitalization celebrated the event

Erik Slottner, Sweden’s Minister for Public Administration and Digitalization was present during the AI Hackathon, and his message to the participants was clear: Dare to invest in AI and learn from each other were his two most important messages.

"We can see that Sweden is starting to fall behind in terms of digitization and AI development when we look at various ranking lists. Sweden needs to pick up the pace, and the government has an important role to play in that regard. We can achieve so much more with digitization today, especially within the public sector, and I have personally witnessed and experienced how digitization has played a crucial role in various areas," says Erik Slottner, continuing:

"AI has tremendous potential to facilitate and improve the lives of many, both in the public sector and in people's everyday lives. This was a great initiative in order to give more people the opportunity to learn about the many possibilities of AI, and I believe this day truly achieved that."

Digitaliseringsminister Erik Slottner på AI Hackaton

Erik Slottner, Minister for Public Administration and Digitalization

After the ten groups presented their best ideas, the winner was chosen. It was KnowAhead, with an idea on how AI can be used in schools to assess students' prior knowledge. The idea involves a chatbot where students answer a series of questions on a subject before their course. The student can share their prior knowledge, and the chatbot can ask follow-up questions about the topic.

”I am incredibly pleased that the focus was on solving specific problems and that there was a strong emphasis on scalability. We saw this consistently in all the ideas, especially in the winning entry”

— Tony Mc Carrick

The Minister for Public Administration and Digitalization initiated the award ceremony, where flowers and diplomas were presented to the three proud hackathon groups voted as the participants' favorites.

The top three proposals:
  1. KnowAhead - Prior knowledge assessment in schools - Customize teaching for individual students and review areas for validation with the help of AI.
  2. My real estate - Businesses, municipalities, and citizens gain an overview and insight into the possibilities for their property. What I’m I allowed to have and build on my property according to approved detailed plans and, subsequently, laws and regulations?
  3. ShoolAId - An assistant that is familiar with the content of the lesson and can answer students' questions about the lesson. It can classify and provide feedback to the teacher, who can then adapt the next lesson.

The day was summarized by Linus Wallin, CEO of Atea Sweden, and Martin Svensson, Co-Director at AI Sweden, who were both present during the award ceremony to congratulate the winners. The participants praised the AI Hackathon as a great way to stimulate thinking about new technology and how AI can be used in municipal operations.