28/05/2026
🫵 How can we build AI that people can truly trust? ֎
That was the key question when all UTOPIA project partners met for the first time in Tromsø on 27 May 2026.
Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to improve healthcare and public services. It can support clinical decisions, improve service delivery and help identify patterns in large datasets. But this potential comes with a clear responsibility: AI systems must be secure, robust and designed to protect privacy from the start.
The UTOPIA project will strengthen knowledge, methods and tools for developing trustworthy AI. The project explores how AI systems can become vulnerable, how models may be manipulated or unintentionally reveal sensitive information, and which measures can reduce risk without compromising performance.
The kick-off meeting was combined with the webinar “Privacy and Security in AI: From Threats to Solutions”, covering key topics such as privacy in natural language processing, synthetic data, Norwegian clinical language models and threat modelling for trustworthy AI.
Healthcare is an important test arena for UTOPIA because health data is highly sensitive and public trust is essential. At the same time, the project’s results will be relevant far beyond the health sector.
By developing shared terminology, standardised tests and practical guidance, UTOPIA aims to help organisations build AI systems that are not only powerful, but also safe, transparent and worthy of public trust.
We are excited to get started - and to contribute to safer, privacy-preserving AI for healthcare and society.
Kassaye Yitbarek Ngo Dinh Phuong Cristina Soguero Ruiz Maryam Tayefi Per Atle Bakkevoll Gro Berntsen Alexandra Makhlysheva Helsedirektoratet Helse- og omsorgsdepartementet (Norge)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming part of the health service. It can support medical decision-making, improve public services and identify patterns in large volumes of data. But if we are to realise its potential, one condition is essential: we must be able to trust the technology.