Elements of AI

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Elements of AI
Type of site
Online education
Available inEnglish, German, Italian, Finnish, Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian, Croatian.
OwnerUniversity of Helsinki, Reaktor Inc.
URLwww.elementsofai.com
CommercialNo
Launched2018

Elements of AI is a massive open online course (MOOC) teaching the basics of artificial intelligence.[1] The course, originally launched in 2018, is designed and organized by the University of Helsinki and technology company Reaktor.[2] The course includes modules on machine learning, neural networks, the philosophy of artificial intelligence, and using artificial intelligence to solve problems.[3][4] It consists of two parts: Introduction to AI and its sequel, Building AI, that was released in late 2020.[5]

University of Helsinki's computer science department is known as the alma mater of Linus Torvalds, a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator of the Linux kernel, which is the kernel for Linux operating systems.[6]

EU’s AI pledge[]

The government of Finland has pledged to offer the course for all EU citizens by the end of 2021, as the course is made available in all the official EU languages.[7] The initiative was launched as part of Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2019, with the European Commission providing translations of the course materials.[8]

In 2017, Finland launched an AI strategy to stay competitive in the field of AI amid growing competition between China and the United States. With the support of private companies and the government, Finland’s now-realized goal was to get 1 percent of its citizens to participate in Elements of AI.[9]

Other governments have also given their support to the course. For instance, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmeier has encouraged citizens to take part in the course to help Germany gain a competitive advantage in AI.[10] Sweden’s Minister for Energy and Minister for Digital Development Anders Ygeman has said that Sweden aims to teach 1 percent of its population the basics of AI like Finland has.[11]

Participants[]

Elements of AI had enrolled more than 500,000 students from more than 110 countries by October 2020.[12]A quarter of the course’s participants are aged 45 and over, and some 40 percent are women. Among Nordic participants, the share of women is nearly 60 percent. [13]

In June 2020, the course was available in Finnish, Swedish, Estonian, English, German, Latvian and Norwegian.[14][15][16] In December 2020, it was available in Italian thanks to the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitalization, Paola Pisano.

References[]

  1. ^ "Finland seeks to teach 1% of all Europeans basics on AI". Reuters. 2020-01-03. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  2. ^ European Commission (2020-01-07). "Elements of Artificial Intelligence course gives basic introduction to AI". Shaping Europe’s digital future - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  3. ^ "A country's ambitious plan to teach anyone the basics of AI". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  4. ^ "The Elements of AI | Tietojenkäsittelytiede | Open University | University of Helsinki". courses.helsinki.fi. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  5. ^ News, Mirage (2020-10-21). "Finland continues its quest to teach 1 % of world basics of AI - Open online course Building AI published | Mirage News". www.miragenews.com. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  6. ^ "Finland offers Artificial Intelligence course as 'Christmas gift'". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  7. ^ Vincent, James (2019-12-18). "Finland is making its online AI crash course free to the world". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  8. ^ Delcker, Janosch (2019-01-02). "Finland's grand AI experiment". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  9. ^ Delcker, Janosch (2019-01-02). "Finland's grand AI experiment". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  10. ^ Altmeier, Peter. "Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) – Warum Deutschland jetzt durchstarten muss und kann". www.bmwi.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  11. ^ Åberg, Matias; Emilia Alentola, Anni (2019-05-06). "Populär finsk AI-kurs lanseras i Sverige – svensk minister tackar ja till utmaning". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  12. ^ "Finland to enhance Europeans' digital skills – Elements of AI online course to be launched in EU countries". Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  13. ^ "Finland offers Artificial Intelligence course as 'Christmas gift'". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  14. ^ "Digitaliseringsministeren: - Nå skal det norske folk på kurs". www.vg.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  15. ^ "Sweden to take up Finnish AI challenge". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  16. ^ "Digital-Vorreiter Finnland - Künstliche Intelligenz fürs Volk". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
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