education

Finland Expands AI Basics Course to EU

How do you teach 1% of the population the basics of AI?
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Reaktor

· less than 3 min read

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Keeping with the theme of frigid climes, let's go to Finland. In 2018, the Nordic country said it wanted to teach the fundamentals of AI to 1% of its population. Now, it's expanding that AI course to the EU, with the goal of teaching 50 million Europeans.

Let's start on day one

Last year, Finland launched "Elements of AI," a six-week crash course developed by the University of Helsinki and Reaktor, a global tech consultancy. Within three months, the country of 5.5 million people hit its 1% threshold. Elements of AI is the most popular course in U. Helsinki’s 379-year history.

Note the timing

Finland will relinquish the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU at the end of the year. Its outgoing gift = expanding Elements of AI to 1% of the EU population by 2021. Starting next year, the course will be available in all 24 official EU languages.

But since there are no restrictions on who can take the course, this is basically a Christmas present to anyone who speaks one of those languages. Since it launched, over 220,000 people from 110 countries have signed up to take the class (it was available online in English).

The bigger picture

The program is meant to equip EU citizens with timely digital skills, increase their practical understanding of AI, and boost innovation in the EU, Timo Harakka, Finland's Minister of Employment, said earlier this month.

Finland, which has the world's youngest prime minister, isn't alone in prepping for AI. Countries and corporations around the globe have called for education and reskilling programs to prepare their workforces for automation-driven disruption. Amazon, for example, announced plans in July to retrain roughly one-third of its U.S. workforce.

Bottom line: At the end of the day, Elements of AI graduates won't be able to explain the technical details of backpropagation or reinforcement learning. But as Harakka said, it's a step toward preparing the general population for AI, not just programmers.

+ I'm going to take Elements of AI. I'll update you on my progress.

Keep up with the innovative tech transforming business

Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.