FRIKTION - Copenhagen Institute on AI & Society

The work

Three fights. One flagship.

01Flagship

A Danish - or preferably joint Nordic - AI safety institute

An independent institute that commissions evaluations of the AI systems the Danish state is rolling out - and connects Denmark to the international network now evaluating the frontier models themselves, a network with no Nordic presence yet. Decision-makers should know what this technology can and cannot do before they bet the welfare state on it - and that knowledge should come from independent testing, not from the companies selling it. The Danish institute comes first, designed from the start to merge into a joint Nordic one: alone, no Nordic country carries much weight on AI safety. Together they do - and somebody has to go first. FRIKTION works to get that institute built and is not a candidate to run it.

An AI workforce tracker - built with employers and unions

In May 2026, California ordered its state agencies to track AI-driven labour-market disruption before legislating on it. Denmark can do it even better: here, wages and working conditions are set by negotiation between employers and unions. So we want the two sides to build and own the tracker together - one shared, trusted set of numbers on how AI is actually changing Danish jobs - and then bring government to the table. If AI starts breaking the link between work and income, the country that saw it coming and has everyone at the table gets to design the answers. That could make Denmark the world's first real lab for a post-AGI economy.

A real Danish strategy for the AGI era

Denmark has AI initiatives; it lacks an operating plan. We convene business, research, unions and public institutions and publish a concrete middle-power strategy for the AGI era - economy, digital sovereignty, security - for the government to adopt or improve on. It rests on two things at once: serious AI and AGI safety measures, and real backing for Danish digital sovereignty and the AI investments homegrown companies and start-ups need. No contradiction between winning on AI and taking AGI safety seriously - Denmark can win on both.

Why Denmark

Punching above our weight is a national habit.

Denmark doesn't build frontier models, and on its own it is a small country. But it has shaped outcomes far bigger than itself before: a driving force in the EU's eastern enlargement, pioneer of offshore wind and co-founder of the global alliance to phase out oil and gas, and - since 2022 - over €10bn in military aid to Ukraine, 3% of GDP, the highest share in the EU.

AI is where that habit is needed next. Nobody hands middle powers a role in the AGI transition; someone has to build it. That is what we are working towards: wake Denmark up, then gather the Nordic governments around a shared role - because evaluation at Nordic scale gives a real say in how Europe enforces its AI rules on the frontier labs, and because a highly digitalised, high-trust country is the right place to work out what a good AGI economy looks like, with business, unions and government at the same table. It will not happen by itself. That is why FRIKTION exists.

Founder

Ruben Kidde

Curriculum vitae (PDF)

Former member of the Danish Parliament, spokesperson for climate and IT. Helped pass the landmark Danish Climate Act of 2020 and one of the world's first broad-based CO2e taxes. 10+ years of senior public affairs experience, advocating for Danish businesses and the green energy sector.

Building FRIKTION since May 2026. An advisory circle is forming across business, labour-market, research and AI safety.

Ruben Kidde is a current parliamentary candidate for the Danish Social Liberal Party. FRIKTION will be built strictly cross-partisan: an independent board chair and all donors published.

Questions

The questions we get most often

Why the name FRIKTION?

Friktion is Danish for friction. AI's promise is to remove it, and much of the hassle and delay should indeed go. But some friction is there for a reason: it is how caseworkers learn their craft, how institutions keep their judgement, and why a citizen can get an explanation. Our job is telling the two kinds apart, decision by decision.

What is your approach to AI safety?

It starts with an honest bet: there is still a chance we have more than one or two years before AGI and recursive self-improvement produce a radical fast takeoff - and that is the world we plan for. In that world, the cheapest risk reduction a country can buy is institutional capacity and political AGI literacy: decision-makers who actually understand what they are buying, and institutions that can check it.

So the work is getting government up to speed - on the dangers, on where Denmark's strategic interest lies, and on the role a middle power can actually play in making AGI go well. Safety becomes policy when it is tied to decisions institutions already face: what to buy, what to deploy, what to depend on. Get that right, and Denmark is not a bystander to the AGI transition - it is one of the countries shaping how Europe handles it.

Denmark already has AI actors. What is missing?

Researchers, agencies, companies, unions, civil-society groups: Denmark has them all, each with a real mandate. What nobody owns is the combination - follow frontier capabilities, translate them into Danish choices, convene the affected interests, and carry proposals into policy until they are adopted. Climate policy has dedicated institutions for exactly that role; AI has none. Building it is FRIKTION's job.

What has the Danish Government promised on AI?

The government programme published in June 2026 contains the first standalone AI chapter in a Danish government platform. The commitments most relevant to FRIKTION:

AI "expected to be able to free" at least 30,000 full-time work-years across the public sector, with employees involved in the transition
An AI acceleration fund to speed up rollout of high-potential solutions
Digital assistants across the welfare state, including health care
A general legal basis for public authorities to use AI, and rollout across state, municipalities and regions
A retraining fund, to be discussed with employers and unions
Investment with foundations in more supercomputer capacity

That is a lot of adoption - and, so far, no independent capacity to evaluate what is being adopted.

Why start in Denmark if the ambition is international?

Because that is where our access is real: fifteen years in and around Danish politics means the doors open, and Denmark is small enough that a proposal can be followed from idea to implementation. But Denmark alone was never the point. On evaluation, procurement, compute and labour transition, the Nordics are stronger as one voice than as five polite ones - so we push for the Danish AI safety institute first, and for it to be designed so it can merge into a joint Nordic one.

What is the status - and what do you need?

In formation - building FRIKTION since May 2026. Stakeholder meetings under way across business, unions, research and government; an advisory circle forming; and conversations with Danish and international foundations about founding support. For the advisory circle, a Nordic collaboration, funding - or a hard question we should be asking: write directly to the founder at ruben@friktionai.dk.