Environment Animals Insects Iceland was the only country in the world without mosquitos--now they've found three The insects will likely stay in the Nordic country. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Until recently, Iceland was the only country in the world to be free of one of the most maddening and dangerous insects: mosquitoes. But if you're thinking that a second nation has been declared mosquito-free, brace yourself for some bad news. The Nordic island has just confirmed the discovery of mosquitoes in the municipality of Kjós.

Developed and used responsibly Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a force for global sustainable development. Given this opportunity, we expect that the many of the existing guidelines and recommendations for trustworthy or responsible AI will provide explicit guidance on how AI can contribute to the achievement of United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This would in particular be the case for the AI strategies of the Nordic countries, at least given their high ranking and overall political focus when it comes to the achievement of the SDGs. In this paper, we present an analysis of existing AI recommendations from 10 different countries or organisations based on topic modelling techniques to identify how much these strategy documents refer to the SDGs. The analysis shows no significant difference on how much these documents refer to SDGs. Moreover, the Nordic countries are not different from the others albeit their long-term commitment to SDGs. More importantly, references to \textit{gender equality} (SDG 5) and \textit{inequality} (SDG 10), as well as references to environmental impact of AI development and use, and in particular the consequences for life on earth, are notably missing from the guidelines.

Just over a year has passed since the assassination of prime minister Olof Palme, a brutal and still unsolved handgun murder taking place in the heart of the nation's capital, Stockholm. Head of the ongoing police investigation, Hans Holmér, has just been forced to resign after cooking up increasingly incompetent and theatrical policing methods, lies and conspiracy theories. Cold war activity in the Baltic region is at peak levels. The navy regularly carry out large scale submarine hunts within Swedish territorial waters and the air force routinely scramble JA-37 Viggen interceptors in response to both Soviet and NATO counterparts scouting just outside national airspace. To fill the ranks of the armed forces, military service is mandated by universal conscription of all men aged 18 and above. Those who refuse to partake are punished by jail.

AI can help solve major societal challenges and provide significant benefits in a variety of areas. AI offers significant potential for the Nordic countries in business and public sector activities. The potential lies in implementing today's technology and know-how to increase efficiency and value creation, and in continued development where AI tools become more user-friendly and available for broad use, and in the long term, more advanced in more application areas. Widespread use of AI in the economy can double the economic growth potential in the long term. All Nordic countries have strongly regulated data environments based on common values and understanding of ethical standards regarding security and responsibility of collecting, sharing, and using data.

Data from Strategy Analytics show that smart speaker shipments in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden reached 900,000 in 2019. That figure is up sharply from shipments of only about 200,000 in 2018. These figures indicate impressive growth and smart speaker interest in countries that collectively claim only about 20 million in population. Strategy Analytics estimates the household installed base for smart speakers these Nordic countries is about 6%. Finland and Iceland were not included in the analysis since none of the leading smart speaker makers have offerings with language localization for these countries. Google Home (a.k.a Google Nest) dominates smart speaker market share in the Nordic countries accounting for over 80% of all devices shipped according to David Watkins, director of connected home devices at Strategy Analytics.

This week, I had the pleasure of attending my first Gartner Symposium in Barcelona. A huge industry event, hosting around 7,500 CIOs and IT executives from around the world, that explores the technology and trends that will shape the future of IT and business into 2020 and beyond. Interestingly, this year's demographics saw the Nordics represented by around 20% of attendees – impressive for a region of only 27 million people collectively. Compare that to the UK and Ireland, who made up only 19% of attendees, but boast over double the population, at 63 million. Perhaps the reputation of the Nordic countries being amongst the most tech-savvy in the world is well earned?

In many ways, Hely Lyly is your typical grandma. She's retired, sings in a chorus, takes fitness classes, participates in a book club and spends a good chunk of her day taking care of her grandchildren. These days, though, Lyly, 68, has a new gig -- as an artificial intelligence evangelist. "AI is now my new hobby," Lyly said, chuckling. Lyly is one of nearly 100 senior volunteers mentoring their peers on the fundamentals of AI.

Finland's prime minister Juha Sipilä has said that the country's legislation must be changed so that it will allow experimenting with Artificial Intelligence technologies faster. Talking in Turku the politician sees that Finland must already think of the next hundred years, just after it's centennial anniversary in 2017. He believeves that adopting Artificial Intelligence at scale in different fields will be key in the future. Currently one of the Nordic country's strengths is it's heavy industry, like shipyards and automotive industry in the Southwest Finland. Both are being receiving continuous investment, with the Turku shipyard training programme and expansion of the Mercedes-Benz production in Uusikaupunki.

The world's largest dementia research experiment, which takes the form of a video game, has indicated the ability to navigate declines throughout life. The findings, presented at the Neuroscience 2016 conference, harnessed data from 2.4 million people who downloaded the game. Getting lost is one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. And the researchers at University College London believe the results could help make a dementia test. Sea Hero Quest is a nautical adventure to save an old sailor's lost memories.