Finland University Offers Free Artificial Intelligence Courses to Anyone

Finland Aims to Become a World Leader in AI.
Finland Aims to Become a World Leader in AI. | ©Deepak Pal / Flickr
Paula Hotti

Whether we are aware of it or not, Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It is used in factories, to drive cars, help us shopping and help companies target advertisements. AI is used to collect data and analyse data and is set to have ever-increasing influence on our lives. With its strong past in tech-driven industries and superb educational system, Finland now aims to become the world leader in AI by offering a free University course to anyone, anywhere.

The University of Helsinki offers a free course on AI.

The aim of the course, called “The Elements of AI”, is to familiarise not only Finns but people around the world with how AI is already affecting our lives, what it can do and also what it cannot do. The course is a collaboration between the University of Helsinki and Reaktor, a Helsinki-based digital design and engineering company. The Elements of AI is a starter level course which does not require any programming or mathematical skills but rather explains how AI works in general.
In a recent article published at YLE.fi, the University of Helsinki is said to hope to make Finland the most educated country in the world when it comes to AI. Janina Fagerlund, a user interface designer at Reaktor, points out that people may not even know how their lives are already affected by AI every day. One example of everyday encounters with AI are the face recognition programmes tech firms such as Facebook and Google use. According to Fagerlund, AI will have the same kind of revolutionary impact to our world as electricity did just over a hundred years ago.
“We want to show that there’s nothing particularly remarkable about AI, it’s just about different ways of solving problems,” Fagerlund tells Yle.

Finland is planning to become a world leader in AI.

How does Finland aim to become world leader in AI?

AI works in many areas of our everyday lives.

The course has attracted people from all walks of life and every age group between 20 and 70 years old. Despite the variation of age and backgrounds, the new students have common motives: “Everyone wants to learn what AI is because they think it will be a big deal in the future. They want to know how AI will affect their lives and how they can make use of it,” Fagerlund sums up for YLE.
For more on how AI is encountered around the world, read how France is planning to become a global hub for AI, or how AI is exhibited in films and in various art installations.

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