Speaker
Description
Speech-to-text is rapidly becoming a core capability in teaching, accessibility and research, but many institutions struggle with trust, cost and data protection when relying on commercial AI services. This talk presents Sunet Scribe, a national, self-hosted Whisper-based speech-to-text service operated inside the Swedish NREN. Starting from concrete operational experience, we explain why Sunet chose this path, how the service is integrated into existing media and collaboration platforms, and what we have learned so far about quality, governance and sustainability. The talk also places Sunet Scribe in a broader Nordic context, where NRENs are coordinating efforts towards long-term, sovereign AI services.
What will the TNC audience take away from your talk?
Participants will:
• Understand why sovereign, self-hosted AI services are becoming essential for higher education and research, and how they differ fundamentally from commercial offerings in terms of trust, governance and compliance.
• Gain insight into how speech-to-text is beginning to reshape teaching, accessibility and research workflows in the Nordic sector — including what has worked well so far, and what challenges remain.
• Learn from Sunet’s operational experience developing and running a national Whisper-based service: what users actually need, what surprised us, what we are iterating on, and what we would do differently.
• See how national initiatives fit into a coordinated Nordic strategy, and how NMG and NMG-S are working to build long-term resilience, interoperability and shared direction for AI services across the region.
• Leave with realistic considerations for evaluating or building similar services, including requirements around ethics, sovereignty, institutional trust, accessibility expectations and long-term sustainability.
| Are you a first time speaker at TNC? | Yes |
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