Finland to have observer status in Alliance for Language Technologies

On 8 May 2024, the Government submitted a Union communication to Parliament, proposing that Finland have observer status in the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for the Alliance for Language Technologies (ALT-EDIC).

The ALT-EDIC, which is an EU consortium, works to develop a common European infrastructure in language technologies. The infrastructure is meant especially for large language models, i.e. artificial intelligence (AI) applications capable of generating text. The Alliance seeks to improve the availability of European language data, uphold Europe’s linguistic diversity and boost European competitiveness.

As an observing Member State, Finland will have the opportunity to participate in the General Assembly meetings of the Alliance without the right to vote and in events organised by the Alliance. Finland will seek full membership later, if funding for the membership fees can be secured.

By joining the Alliance, Finland will strive to support linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe. This includes, in particular, strengthening the status of the Finnish and Swedish languages and the minority languages spoken in Finland when developing language technologies. Finland will also seek to support European technological excellence.

The Government is in favour of cooperation between EU Member States within the Alliance. Finland is one of the forerunners in research, development and high-performance computing related to large language models, and this gives us a competitive edge internationally. It is therefore in Finland’s interests to join the Alliance. 

As part of the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, the EU established European Digital Infrastructure Consortiums (EDICs). The EDICs help Member States to speed up and simplify the setup and implementation of multi-country projects, which in turn supports the achievement of the EU digitalisation objectives. The ALT-EDIC was established on 1 February 2024, and a large number of EU Member States have already joined it.

What’s next?

The organisation of ALT-EDIC work will start at the national level when Finland joins the Alliance.

Inquiries:

Tomi Paavola, Senior Specialist, tomi.paavola(at)gov.fi, tel. +358 295 342 089