'1% of the people train AI' What is the 'niche goal' aimed at the magnificent experiment in Finland?

by geralt

In Finland, governments, universities and private enterprises are working together on a plan to "free AI education for the people" free of charge to people. The goal of this plan is not to "produce experts and technicians of AI", but people who receive AI education have no knowledge of programming or machine learning. In AI development competition in the United States and China it does not enter, AI education in Finland is very unique to go through its own route.

Finland's grand AI experiment - POLITICO
https://www.politico.eu/article/finland-one-percent-ai-artificial-intelligence-courses-learning-training/

Finland's "1 percent AI plan" will start with conducting free AI education for 1% of the people, that is to say 55,000 people, and will continue to increase the number of people who will provide education over the next few years something like. The interesting thing about this plan is that AI education provided free of charge is not aimed at nurturing AI engineers and experts but rather to the general public who did not even know the words "machine learning" and "neural network" On the other hand, the aim is to teach "advanced application of AI".

The AI development competition is intensifying between the United States and China. Finland's 1% AI plan is not intended to compete with the US or China, but it is a more niche aim. Finland's Economic Minister Mika Lintilä said, "We do not have enough money to become a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but if it is about using artificial intelligence, the story is different", Finland's aim is " Practical application of AI "to stand on the leader.

For example, Jaana Partanen, a 59-year-old dentist who is participating in the 1 percent AI program, had no knowledge of AI until several years ago. Partanen has learned the basics of coding every evening as of 2019, and I am considering using AI in my future work.

The 1% AI program was originally one of the online courses "Elements of AI" provided by the Computer Science Department of the University of Helsinki and the startup Reaktor . According to Teemu Roos, a computer scientist at the University of Helsinki, the free course was originally launched in May 2018 to "support democracy".

A free online introduction to artificial intelligence for non-experts
https://www.elementsofai.com/

The course is not intended for cutting-edge developers, but people who do not have coding skills can learn about AI. By teaching people who have no connection with computer science, by teaching possibilities or risks born by AI, it will be possible for ordinary people to make judgments about government investment destinations and what options are of merit to themselves It was aimed at. Roos judged that "There is help for creating courses for the general public," Roos cooperated with Reaktor and created an online course "Introduction to AI" that excluded programming.

Mr. Roos and Reaktor made a promotion asking employers of large-scale Finnish companies to participate in the course, thinking that "creation of a course does not make sense if it is not recognized". It is this time that "One percent of Finland citizens will be AI educated by the end of 2018" was also announced.

By mid-December 2018, 250 companies announced their participation in this "AI Challenge", Elisa and Nokia, mobile phone carriers, to all employees, and Stora Enso, a papermaker, 1,000 employees I will let you take a course. As a result, more than 10,500 people participated in the course, although more than 6,600 were Finland citizens, although they did not reach the target.

As the AI challenge became active, the government also took notice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the staff of the tax authorities also received courses. Prime Minister Sauli and Nienist also said that it appeared on the first graduation ceremony held in September 2018. Originally it was only the English version, but in November 2018 the Finnish version also appeared from the government 's hope that the spread of the course will be accelerated.

by Hietaparta

Finland documented the AI national strategy for the first time in the EU in 2017 and in the second bulletin report released in June 2018, finally one million of the population needs to update their AI skills eventually The prediction that it will be pressed was stated. The Finnish government plans to cooperate with Estonia and Sweden to create excellence "laboratories" in AI experiments as well as lobbying for EU deregulation.