Tens of thousands of Finnish citizens, with no experience in IT or Artificial Intelligence, have graduated from a course on AI.
And hundreds of Finnish companies are now pledging to send all of their employees through it.
Why?
It is part of a push within the country to get everyday citizens thinking about how to handle Artificial Iintelligence.
The MIT Technology Review puts it like this:
At the heart of the economic push to up-skill Finnish workers is another push to create a more informed democracy. That was what prompted Teemu Roos, the mastermind behind the course and an associate professor of computer science at the University of Helsinki, to begin the project in the first place. He wanted to equip voters with the necessary information to weigh in on how the country should invest in and regulate AI.
And Elina Lepomaki, a member of the Finnish Parliament, says everyone must understand AI, not just those who build it:
For AI to be successful, not only do we have to develop it; we also must work on finding diverse ways of utilizing AI. And it’s not just up to the engineers, which is why it’s so great that the Elements of AI course is free for anyone to attend.
The free Finnish AI course, called Elements of Artificial Intelligence, is open to the world. You can check it out here.
And if Artificial Intelligence is of high interest to you, don't miss the opening keynote at SecureWorld Boston 2019 on March 27. The Bald Futurist, Steve Brown, will be showing off the latest in AI and the rise of robots and drones during his presentation. Here's a little preview:
