An initiative launched by Finland aims to train at least 1% of EU citizens in the basics of artificial intelligence. The Elements of AI training will allow each person who wants to learn more about AI. 22 EU countries took part in this project coordinated with the help of the University of Helsinki, the Finnish government, the European Commission and Reaktor, a company specialized in the development of digital services and products. In France, Sorbonne University is the academic partner of this online course.

An initiative around AI launched during Finland’s EU presidency

Between July and December 2019, Finland held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Thanks to this position, it initiated a training program with the help of Reaktor and the University of Helsinki. The goal is to train at least 1% of European citizens on key aspects of AI, which would strengthen digital leadership in the EU. This figure corresponds to about 4.5 million people.

A member of the Finnish parliament, Elina Lepomäki, spoke about the importance of making this training accessible to all:

“If we want to succeed with AI, we need to not only develop it, but also find many ways to use it. And that’s not just the domain of engineers, which is why it’s very important that everyone can access the Elements of AI course for free.”

In each country, in addition to the European and Finnish institutions coordinating the project, they have a local academic partner to help spread the project to the public. In France, this is Sorbonne University.

A free course accessible to all

This course, accessible to everyone (even non-EU citizens), is free and easy to access. Its content allows to know what AI means, what can be done or not with AI and to start manipulating AI. Theory meets practice and all modules can be completed at the participant’s desired pace. Director of AI Business, Reaktor, Hanna Hagström spoke around learning through simple, yet diverse exercises:

“For companies, artificial intelligence means a whole new era of surveying. The companies that are willing to learn through experimentation are the ones that progress the most, and most likely the ones that take the lead.”

Within the EU, about 245,000 people started the course, which is 0.055% of the population. 15.9% of the participants have completed the course, which corresponds to 39,000 people and about 45% of those trained are women. Sari Lindblom, rector of the University of Helsinki, calls on European citizens to participate in Elements of AI:

“About 2% of Finns have completed the course and I encourage all Europeans to explore it. A key idea of our university is that science and learning belong to everyone. This course is a way to invest in citizens’ skills, promote lifelong learning and meet society’s information needs.”

A course that is developing within the European Union

Latvia was the first country to launch the course in May 2020, with Spain and Slovenia the latest to offer it, in April 2021. France offered the course from 24 September 2020. Furthermore, Latvia is the country with the highest participation with 7,200 registrants which corresponds to 0.4% of the population, behind Croatia with 21,000 participants or 0.5% of its population.

At the same time, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy have the highest number of registrants completing the training: between 15 and 19% of participants complete the training. Sweden and Estonia also perform well, as the course was already available in these countries before Finland launched the initiative. Worldwide, more than 660,000 people have participated in the course.

Prof. Teemu Roos, Elements of AI’s education manager, refers to the goal of the course he coordinates:

“Artificial intelligence is not a robotic revolution, but an everyday thing that does not need to be mystified. The course offers a kind of science-based vaccination against all the hype and misleading references to artificial intelligence. Our goal is to involve citizens in thinking about new AI applications so that artificial intelligence can be developed to meet people’s real needs.”

Finland’s bet in the field of AI is education and cooperation, as can be seen in this initiative. Other actions implemented by the Finnish ecosystem can be found within the focus on Finland available in the fourth issue of our magazine.

Translated from Elements of AI : la Finlande vise à former les citoyens européens aux bases de l’intelligence artificielle