Finland wants to train 1% of EU citizens in the basics of artificial intelligence

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Finland, which has already trained 1% of its citizens in artificial intelligence, intends to do the same with the citizens of the European Union (EU). To fulfill this objective, the Finnish state announced Tuesday, December 10, 2019, on the sidelines of the meeting of EU employment ministers held in Brussels, make available to European citizens "Elements of AI" online training. The latter, already available in English, Finnish, Swedish and Estonian, will be gradually available in all the official languages ​​of the Union in the years 2020-2021 (a total of 24 languages including the 4 languages ​​already available).

220,000 registered since May 2018

The Elements of AI course was created by the University of Helsinki and the Finnish agency Reaktor. The goal of this training is to help all people, regardless of age or level of education, to acquire basic and critical knowledge of artificial intelligence. Elements of AI helps to understand this technology, as well as what it can and can not do. The course, which was launched in May 2018 and is offered by the University of Helsinki, attracted 55,000 Finns in a few months, or 1% of the country's population. In total, there are already 220,000 registered on the online platform, including 40% women and 25% people over 45, details Reaktor.

This course is free and accessible to all European citizens. This initiative has a budget of € 1.679 million from the Finnish Ministry of Economy and Employment. The Finnish government hopes to help people adapt to the changes in the world of work and to make the EU one of the leaders in this field. "We are investing in building citizens 'skills, improving Europeans' understanding of the potential and nature of artificial intelligence in practice, and strengthening European leadership in the digital domain to support competitiveness", Finland's Employment Minister Timo Harakka said in a statement.

Skills that appeal to businesses

This initiative is part of the movement driven by Emmanuel Macron in France that makes this artificial intelligence technology an essential part of the development of France. More generally, these are skills that appeal to large companies like Google. The firm of Mountain View, which announced to invest 3 billion euros to deploy its data centers in Europe over the next two years, will inject 600 million euros in Finland in 2020. A choice partly justified by the fact that 1% of the population benefits from artificial intelligence training. "Over the next 10 to 15 years, 90% of jobs will require a certain level of computer skills"explained Google.

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