Press Release: KF and UiA CAIR on the Tsetlin Collaboration

A Norwegian AI breakthrough is being made widely available through a unique collaboration between
, academia, and the business community. To address the urgent need for explainable and secure use of artificial intelligence in the public sector, KF (Kommuneforlaget AS) and the University of Agder / Center for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) are now making the Norwegian-developed Tsetlin technology available as open-source software.

While the global AI race is often characterized by closed systems, we are taking a different approach with this launch. Through close collaboration between the private sector (KF) and academia (the University of Agder), complex, internationally recognized research is being transformed into practical tools that are free and accessible to everyone. The solution is not a direct competitor to solutions such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, but it provides the public sector, the business community, and developers with an important national tool for building safe, understandable, and democratic AI solutions—tools that can explain why a decision is made, which is particularly important for the use of AI in case management.

– In a geopolitically unstable situation, it is important that we in Norway develop and use technological solutions that make us less dependent on the major Big Tech companies. This collaboration is also an excellent example of how academic research at a high, international level can create immediate value for society when we work closely with forward-thinking players in the business sector. “By making our AI research openly available as free software, we and KF are directly contributing to innovation, transparency, and, not least, secure digitalization in the public sector,” says Sunniva Whittaker, rector at the University of Agder.

From Ambition to Action in the Public Sector

In 2026, the government shifted its focus on AI from ambition to implementation, in part through the establishment of AI Norway, with the goal of making it easier to succeed in the value-creating use of AI. At the same time, the Office of the Auditor General has emphasized the need for better coordination and stronger implementation (“Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector”), and KS (the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities) has pointed out that, given its increasing use, the sector needs both practical approaches and better guidance to ensure that it realizes the benefits.

“With this launch, we aim to make Norwegian AI research easily and freely accessible to municipalities, public agencies, and others who need explainable, verifiable, and practically applicable artificial intelligence, and we are very pleased to be part of this collaboration and research community,” says Sven-Olav Svendsen, CEO of KF.

Democratizing Access to AI

To lower the barrier to entry from research to practical testing, the KF Fuzzy Tsetlin and KF Graph Tsetlin components are now being launched. These make it easier to apply the methods in Langflow—a free, web-based environment that allows users to build AI workflows without having to write code from scratch (“no-code” and “low-code”).

This makes it possible to integrate AI support exactly where it is needed, including in municipal case management. At the same time, users can, if they wish, delve deep into the details and examine individual lines of code.

Transparent and Green Technology

The Tsetlin machine was developed by Professor Ole-Christoffer Granmo at the University of Agder / CAIR and has garnered international attention as a logic-based and explainable approach to AI. The research, which has been further developed in the area of Fuzzy Pattern Tsetlin Machines, among other areas, is described in CAIR’s work as a tool for “Green and Democratic AI,” with an emphasis on transparency, logical rules, and energy efficiency.

“Tsetlin technology was developed to combine learning, transparency, and efficiency. The fact that this research is now becoming easier to implement as free software is important for innovation, verifiability, and broader societal benefits,” says Ole-Christoffer Granmo.

As the public sector calls for more responsible, useful, and—not least—transparent AI, KF and the University of Agder / CAIR believe that open and free access to this Norwegian-developed technology is an important step forward.

Accessibility

The components are published under the MIT/Expat license and will be available to everyone at no cost.

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