Building Europe with Open LLMs - Manu Setälä.pptx

By: Manu Setälä, Head of Research, Solita Oy.

1. Mindtrek : Building Europe with Open LLMs Manu Setälä, Head of Research Solita Oy

2. About me and Solita Oy Manu Setälä , Head of Research at Solita, https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuset/ First software-related income in early 80's, with formal ICT studies starting in 1987. Interest in research is broad: public sector digital ecosystems, secure AI, AI-assisted solutions, etc. Solita Oy , Founded in 1996, https://www.solita.fi/ 10 countries, 2200+ highly skilled Data, AI, Design, and Software Development professionals. We combine strategic consulting, service design, and software development to deliver impact that lasts . Strong focus on AI: Leading the development and transition to Generative AI for our clients (e.g., Solita FunctionAI platform - https://www.solita.fi/solita-function-ai/ ).

3. Background & why Europe is aging, and fewer people are required to provide services to society. More work will be done by ICT  E urope could become an AI-enabled society : public services, infrastructure, and decision-making increasingly run on digital systems. This change is no longer a choice, but a necessity. In future LLMs play a significant role in the area of AI-enabled society. Significant part of society's activities are controlled by software As little manual work as possible (at least) Part of decision-making will be automated, hopefully safely, transparently, and responsibly. Dependency on non-European LLM providers (US, China) risks sovereignty, transparency, and competitiveness. Open LLMs offer a European way: accessible, transparent, multilingual, and aligned with our democratic values.

4. EU – same regulation  same solutions Develop once, use in every country Open source European hosting / cloud

5. What (approach / solution) Open LLMs as building blocks: open-source models (Mistral, LLaMA , Falcon, etc.) enable innovation, customization, and trust. Benefits: Transparency : bias and safety can be audited. Adaptability : models tailored to local languages and domains. Ecosystem growth : SMEs, researchers, and public sector can innovate without billion-dollar budgets. Challenges: Compute and infrastructure costs – this is both challenge and opportunity . Regulatory clarity (AI Act; Data Act, GDPR, …, liability in open models). Need for pan-European collaboration to reach scale! Not efficient that every country makes own solutions, and not very exportable  “Dev once use every country”

6. How (implementation / action) We must create a concept and reference models for an AI-enabled society; develop solutions that enable generative artificial intelligence to produce the necessary software without traditional programming; establish the legal, technical, and organizational prerequisites for this new operating model. The steps : Exploration & pilots : national-level use cases in public services (regulation-driven) European collaboration : Horizon-scale initiatives, open-source consortia, shared compute infrastructure Sustainable ecosystem : combining research, startups, large companies, and public sector in an open innovation loop.

7. Strategic value (benefit / impact) Strengthens Europe’s technological sovereignty . Unlocks multilingual and multicultural AI leadership . Supports public trust and democratic legitimacy through openness. Builds a foundation for export-ready digital solutions and green scalability. Some “calculations” Only public cloud costs in Europe about $142G 70% to USA ( = $100G = 10^11). CAGR 19% https://my.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prEUR153716725 According to IBISWorld software development in Europe is about 500 G€ - so with European solutions this would be more than 20 % growth in Europe . Remember also license costs and so on – this could be 50% + 100% growth PLUS “snowball effect” and export

8. We can do it together Research in Universities and VTT e.g. Running: ANSE = AI Native Software Engineering , JKL/Tommi Mikkonen & TUNI/Pekka Abrahamsson Proposal preparation phase: Sovereign service infrastructure for digital transformation , JKL/Samuli Pekkola Many co-innovations already running: ELFMo , Genius, MAISA, … Public sector: potential for grant (Innovative public procurement – in FI: Innovatiiviset julkiset hankinnat ) Companies R&D + execution Public Body user of new solution Tech competense Solution provider Research Legal framework New Software Engineering Need & Cross-border solution steering Promoting legislative changes Business Finland and Horizon Europe Support for the organisations to try this new idea University research

9. Summary “Building Europe with Open LLMs is not just about technology – it is about sovereignty, values, and the ability to shape our own digital future together.” + Huge potential business growth M E GA = Make EUROPE Great Again

10. Discussion & Questions Manu Setälä Solita Oy