Anita is a global voice in the ethical application of Artificial Intelligence, with a special place in her heart for the really complicated problems humanity needs to solve with deep tech and deep empathy. And Science.
She does this primarily as the CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.ai, one of the 10 most innovative artificial intelligence companies in 2017 according to Fast Company, awarded the prestigious EIC Accelerator Financing in 2023. Iris.ai is aiming to build the world’s first ‘AI researcher’, and currently offering research discovery and data extraction tools for Academic Research and Corporate R&D.
Anita was announced by Forbes to be one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2018, and among the Inspiring Fifty Nordics in 2017 and 2019. She thoroughly enjoys her time on stage, has done two TEDx talks and is a 500 startups, SU Global Grand Challenges Awards and TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield alumni.
Anita is also a sought-after public speaker globally. She is Faculty in Artificial Intelligence at Singularity University and the Re:Humanize Institute, and she holds several board positions including the Katapult Group, and NORA Startup (Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium).
Anita has never had what she refers to as “a real job” and Iris.ai is her fourth own startup. The past 10 years of her career have spanned over 9 industries including developing an e-learning tool in Silicon Valley, performing theatre for babies, reducing energy consumption in the process industry through heat exchanger network optimization, getting 30 (mainly middle-age, male) engineers to dance to ABBA in front of their co-workers, facilitating solar light business creation in Kenya, being in the centre of several startups crashing and burning, organizing entrepreneurial conferences and trying to disrupt the recruitment industry. She also dropped by 6 universities on the way. And built a race car.
She believes each and every one of us holds the power to leave this world at least slightly better than we found it.