Launched in May 2018, this free online course about Artificial Intelligence is developed by the Reaktor consultancy and the University of Helsinki. The initial goal was to get one percent of the overall population of Finland to complete the course. This target was reached in a few months! Since December 10 it is open to everyone and anyone can sign up! You want to be one of them? Sign up for course on elementsofai.com!
Now Finland wants to take it to the next level. The new target is having one percent of the overall European population to complete the online AI course in 2020 and 2021. The ambitious goal aims to educate the population on the basics of artificial intelligence. As a matter of fact, already more than 220 000 people from all over the world had sign up for the course. At the moment, the course is available in English, Finnish, Swedish and Estonian. Moreover, very soon the class will be available in all European languages (Spring 2020)! Take a look of what it looks like once you enroll:
The announcement was made on December 10 to mark the end of Finland’s presidency of the Council of the EU. This project will be financed entirely by the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The cost of the initiative is estimated to be around 1.7 million euros. Timo Harakka, the Minister of Employment said that “Our investment has three goals: we want to equip EU citizens with digital skills for the future; we wish to increase practical understanding of what artificial intelligence is; and by doing so, we want to give a boost to the digital leadership of Europe”.
Teemu Roos, the Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Helsinki emphasis the fact that the matter go far beyond the border of Finland “Our University has a policy of making its research and expertise benefit society at large. As research into artificial intelligence is highly advanced in Finland, it came naturally to us to make AI teaching more widely accessible”.
For more information, visit elementsofai.com
