"We need new AI technologies that support a society with many independent stakeholders"

Søren Hauberg is heavily invested in what AI should actually do for society – not just what it is capable of. A machine learning professor at the Technical University of Denmark and dual ERC grantee, he brings both deep technical expertise and a sharp sense of responsibility. We asked him why this moment matters.

Søren Hauberg is a machine learning professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He received his PhD in computer science from the University of Copenhagen in 2011. Prior to pursuing a PhD he worked as a "digital lumberjack" in the startup Dralle A/S. He is a dual ERC grantee, and further serves as Denmark's first Ambassador for the ERC. In 2018, he joined the Young Scientists community under the World Economic Forum, and was in the process named one of "10 of the most exciting young scientists working in the world today." In 2025, he was the leading initiator of the EurIPS conference and has since served in the ELLIS Events Area to develop European AI conferences.

Why must this initiative exist - now?

Current AI tech is overly dominated by a few companies that focus on creating "AI silos". This model all too easily results in de facto monopolies that are harmful to society. This initiative will hopefully support new directions for both tech development and society.

Beyond money: what's the real 'operating space' teams get here?

Building AI systems is not cheap and the money matters. Researchers and entrepreneurs need time where they are not forced to make a short-term profit. Avoiding short-term constraints is the real benefit.

"Societally, we need state-of-the-art AI systems based on a distributed ownership model."

What would a real breakthrough look like?

Many! Foundation models are often used to "outsource thinking". Any player in this market has a responsibility to explicate biases to enable critical thinking among end-users. Equally important, any player in this market must be easily replaceable when they fail to live up to the trust implied by outsourcing thinking.

What responsibility comes with building foundation models?

One promising area is turning the complexity of European federalism into a strength. That could mean solving hard problems with thousands of small models working together in agentic systems.
Another area is manufacturing. Imagine AI powered robots that can be tuned and deployed across different production lines and sectors.
AI for science is also a major opportunity. Speeding up innovation in drug discovery and material science could be transformative. These are just examples. I encourage teams to think big and dream big in any direction that excites them.

What's the biggest challenge for Frontier AI in Europe right now?

The biggest challenge is that current big tech companies are quickly shaping the market and building consumer expectations of how AI systems should function. These current generation systems are all monolithic and designed to create de facto monopolies. We need disruptive technologies to create AI solutions that are fundamentally designed to avoid such monopolies, and we need companies to shape end-user expectations accordingly.

Who should apply - and who shouldn’t?

Smart, creative souls with an ambition to build AI that works with society rather than against it should apply!

Contact person

Søren Hauberg

Professor, Technical University of Denmark