If you’ve ever heard the phrase AI or Artificial Intelligence and wished you understood it a bit better, now you can. Finland launched a free Elements of AI course for it’s citizens with an inital goal of 1% of Finns taking the course. 1% of Finns, about 55,000 people was reached within a few months and now, as an initiative as part of their holding the rotating EU presidency, they made it available for free to the world with the aim of 1% of all EU citizens taking the course.
“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.”
– Timo Harakka, Minister of Employment, Finland
Since the free Artificial Intelligence course launched in 2018, more than 220,000 students from 110 countries have enrolled to study modules on machine learning, neural networks, the philosophy of artificial intelligence and using artificial intelligence to solve problems.
The Introduction to Artificial Intelligence is a free online course for everyone interested in learning what AI is, what is possible (and not possible) with AI, and how it affects our lives – with no complicated math or programming required. The course is available in English, German, Norweigan, Swedish, Estonian and of course Finnish, and Finland will translate Elements of AI into all EU languages this year. You can sign up to take the Elements of AI course here.