The Many Minds of AI: Tumors, Thoughts, and Terra
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
Doors open
5:30 pm
Event starts
6:00 pm
Storgata Camping Tromsø
Mackkvartalet, Storgata 2, 9008 Tromsø, Norway
In this session, we explore how AI is reshaping the way we understand both ourselves and the world around us. From predicting individual breast cancer risk years in advance using deep learning, to testing the limits of logical reasoning in today’s most advanced language models, to monitoring the Earth from above through satellites and drones. AI is no longer just a tool, but an active interpreter of complex systems.
Solveig Thrun
Nasjonalt forskningssenter innen komplementær og alternativ medisin, Sykehusvegen
21, 9019 Tromsø, Norway
Can AI Predict Breast Cancer Risk? Advancing Early Detection with Deep Learning
Breast cancer screening saves lives, yet current programs assume all women have the
same risk, overlooking individual differences. I will talk about how deep learning can
analyze mammograms to predict a woman’s individual risk of breast cancer up to 5
years in advance by detecting subtle early patterns. By moving beyond a "one-size-fits-
all" approach, I will show how personalized screening strategies can enable earlier
detection and prevention, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Daniel Kaiser
UiT The Arctic University of Norway
CogniLoad: When and why does logical reasoning in LLMs fail?
Deductive reasoning is the cornerstone of any reasoning task that you throw at an LLM.
But how far does it go? In our paper we investigate this question to understand whether
task length, difficulty or distracting information are the bigger issue for current chatbots.
Inspired by Cognitive Load theory we generate logical riddles and ask the most popular
LLMs to solve them to find out how good they are in comparison, and what really
causes them them to fail.
Kristoffer Wickstrøm
UiT The Arctic University of Norway
The AI-eye in the sky: Monitoring the Earth from above
From detecting oil spills to inspecting power lines, artificial intelligence is transforming how we monitor our planet. Satellites scan vast stretches of sea, while drones examine infrastructure too dangerous for humans to check. But making sense of all this data is a huge challenge - that is where AI comes in. By training AI to recognise patters in images, we can now spot environmental disasters faster and keep critical infrastructure safe, pointing the way for the future of Earth observation.