When the application deadline for the fifth round in the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's regulatory sandbox ticked away on November 1st, 20 applications had been received from various innovation projects wishing to explore privacy challenges.
- We are very pleased with the pool of applicants. There are many very exciting projects here. More than we can accommodate in the sandbox at this time, but we will try to the best of our ability to help as many of them as possible in one form or another, says the sandbox manager Hallstein Husand.
So far, 12 projects have tested the sandbox method as a guidance measure. Ten reports packed with knowledge about AI and assessments in relatively unplowed legal ground have been published. The two projects in the fourth round are in their final stages, and the reports from there will hopefully be ready for publication just before the New Year.
Read more about the ongoing sandbox projects.
See the reports from the completed sandbox projects.
So there is room for new projects in the sandbox in January. During November, the admissions committee will select 3-4 of the 20 applications received.
- Exactly how many projects we have capacity for at the moment depends somewhat on the complexity of the projects. In any case, in December we will announce which ones it will be, says Husand.
At first glance, the pool of applicants appears to provide a fairly representative selection from Norwegian AI and digitalisation.
There are 14 applicants from private actors and six from the public sector. 6-7 of the applicants are new start-ups, some so new that the company has not actually been registered yet.
Health is, as before, well represented. Six of the applications come from there. Otherwise, finance, transport, the environment and digital services for working life and consumers are represented.
Technologically, several of the projects want to explore legality and ethics when using generative AI/language models in different areas.
- With the applications that have come in, everything is in place to select a nice bouquet, which together with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority can create a lot of mutual learning, says Husand.