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Finland knows it doesn’t have the resources to compete with China or the United States for artificial intelligence supremacy, so it’s trying to outsmart them. “People are comparing this to electricity – it touches every single sector of human life,” says Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa. From its foundations as a pulp mill 153 years ago, Nokia is now one of the companies helping to drive a very quiet, very Finnish AI revolution.
Last May, the small Nordic country announced the launch of Elements of AI, a first-of-its-kind online course that forms part of an ambitious plan to turn Finland into an AI powerhouse. To date, more than 130,000 people have signed up for the course. “It’s a pretty unique thing in Finland,” says Siilasmaa, who had an advisory role in the development of the online course. But it isn’t just Finns who are benefitting from the grand AI plan.
A few months after the course launched, developer Teemu Roos found himself chatting online to a Nigerian plumber who wanted to learn more about artificial intelligence. It was then that Roos, and his colleagues at the University of Helsinki who helped develop Elements of AI, knew their work could have a massive impact – not just in Finland, but across the world.
For such an ambitious plan, it has humble beginnings. The aim of the online course is to ensure that as many Finns as possible understand the basics of AI. According to Roos and Siilasmaa, practically anyone could benefit from knowing more about AI right now. And from that huge pool of knowledge, the hope is that a few bright sparks can give Finland a competitive edge.
Businesses could be more competitive, consumers more informed about the products they use and entire societies could make better decisions about AI, including regulating it. There are rewards for those who engage with the subject, according to consultancy McKinsey. It thinks a handful of deep learning techniques alone could soon account for up to $6 trillion in value annually. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development describes AI as already transforming “every aspect” of our lives.
The nation of 5.5 million people has certainly proved that it can punch above its weight: Finland is renowned for its accessible, world-beating higher education system, and huge numbers of people attend university – where tuition is free. Now the country is on a mission to educate itself – and anyone else who wants to join the class – about machine learning.
When he gives talks, Siilasmaa often asks the audience if they think AI will soon dictate the competitiveness of the Finnish economy or the business they work for. Usually hundreds of hands are raised. Then he asks how many people understand how AI works. “Typically no one raises their hands,” he says.
An online course could quickly and easily ensure that people are well-equipped to respond to the arrival of this technology. There is, after all, a substantial AI skills gap – with millions of engineering jobs available but only a few hundred thousand people currently qualified to fill them. Rather than waiting to be disrupted by AI, the hope is that Finns could learn to bend it to their will.
With the help of design consultancy Reaktor, the Elements of AI team came up with the full six-week programme in just a few months.
It’s written in plain English (or Finnish) and tackles the fundamental basics of artificial intelligence as it is used today. There are written sections, with exercises for students to complete, on subjects like problem-solving, neural networks and the social implications of AI. There are, however, no videos. The course designers didn’t consider them a good way to learn.
But the entirely text-based course is intended to be accessible to all. Ville Valtonen at Reaktor says it has been optimised for smartphones: “People have done it while taking the bus to work.”
Roos proudly explains that around 40 per cent of the 130,000 participants who have signed up so far are women – a proportion he is not used to (“You can imagine, teaching at the computer science department…”). There’s interest from businesses, too. More than 250 Finnish companies have pledged to use the course for staff training.
More than a quarter of participants are over 45, so the appeal isn’t limited to Finland’s youth either. Actually, it’s not even limited to Finns. Around half of those who have taken the course are from elsewhere in the world. There have been visitors to the website from every country in the world except North Korea, says Valtonen. Which is how Roos ended up chatting to a Nigerian plumber. “He has ideas about how he’ll use AI in his business and personal life,” Roos says. He adds that, in the early days of the course last summer, it was generally his colleagues and people in tech circles who most often told him they were taking the course. But since word of the programme has spread, more and more people have taken part. In meetings, senior politicians have excitedly pulled out their phones to show him what chapter of the course they’ve reached. “The government of Finland has fully supported us,” he says. “That’s been really, really cool.”
Mirva Kuvaja is a part-time artist who took the Elements of AI course last year. “I’ve done, like, three degrees,” she tells me. Two were in the UK and one in Finland. Kuvaja is also studying the programming language Java through a University of Helsinki programme. She enjoyed the AI course, she says. “It has no application for my work life at the moment but it’s a very trendy topic and totally new for me.”
Her day job is in the corporate social responsibility department at a firm that makes studs for winter tyres – a must-have road accessory in Finland. But in her spare time, Kuvaja is an artist. She thinks what she’s learned about machine learning may one day help her to come up with AI-assisted artworks. And the course, which delves briefly into the ethical issues around AI, has prompted her to reconsider what online services she uses, based on how they handle and process personal data.
“I actually left Facebook,” she explains. “I try to be a little bit more aware of what I do online and just generally always consider the terms and conditions before I click ‘Agree’ on anything.”
As Roos says, one of the goals is to inform consumers. “If there are powerful technologies shaping society, then the general public should have a chance to be aware and take part in the public discussion,” he says.
But for Siilasmaa, the long-term benefits will really come if those key decision-makers, not just consumers, begin to understand AI so that they can take advantage of it. He tells me about meeting the mayor of a major city – the mayor was all at sea when it came to AI, but wanted to learn more. Siilasmaa’s advice? Sit down and think carefully about how you can use AI to your advantage.
Although most executives and politicians think AI is important for maintaining a competitive advantage, deployment of the technology remains low. That suggests more people need to know how to actually integrate AI technologies with existing systems.
I ask Siilasmaa whether there is any patriotic motivation on his part behind this AI-drive. He says he’d like the whole world to be better off through such learning, before adding, “But, obviously, I’m a Finn.”
Citing the country’s strong social security policies, he says he thinks Finns can “deal with the potential negative consequences of machine learning best”. But Finland isn’t the only country that has spotted the opportunity to move ahead in this race. Authorities in China have said AI should be taught to primary school children. The first such classes are due to start this year.
European countries clearly don’t want to be left behind. Sweden has pledged to offer a version of the Elements of AI course in Swedish. And Roos has had requests from several other countries. “Faster than we can currently deliver,” he says.
Improving AI literacy could insulate societies from the threat posed to certain jobs. While there is much debate over how many jobs may actually be lost as automation takes over, there is little doubt that the rise of AI will change the job market in some way. New roles will come along, says Siilasmaa. But it will be those who understand the shifting nature of industry who will be best placed to take them on.
Another course participant, Kalle Langén, says he convinced his company to allow him time to take the Elements of AI course. He manages 26 specialists in an IT department. Their work often involves upgrading clients’ email systems or migrating software and data to the cloud.
He isn’t sure how yet, but the programme has inspired him to investigate how AI could help streamline this work and improve responses to customer queries. “That is probably the biggest value of the course,” he says.
And he’s not the only one. His wife took the course as well, he says. She works in the purchasing department at a retail business and is thinking about how AI may be used to crunch product data so that she and her team can make better buying decisions in the future.
AI expert Mark Briers at the Alan Turing Institute wasn’t involved with the course’s development but says it’s an “exciting and progressive” initiative. The introductory modules are informative and non-sensational, he says. “They would allow, for instance, better decisions to be formed around contentious issues such as ‘killer robots’.” He thinks there is an opportunity to introduce content that improves people’s data literacy generally, though. Future iterations could achieve that, he says. Why not teach people about modern statistical procedures – the like of which are now commonly used in weather forecasting and political debates, for example those around economics or immigration?
”It is important, in my opinion, that the general public have an ability to understand such content, in order to make informed decisions,” he explains.
For a technology like AI, which can be very confusing to the average person, it’s hard to sniff at Finland’s well-meaning – and free-to-access – course. Valtonen puts it more bluntly: “AI and technology in general are too important to be left in the hands of programmers.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
