A country’s ambitious plan to teach anyone the basics of AI
At the heart of the economic push to up-skill Finnish workers is another push to create a more informed democracy. That was what prompted Teemu Roos, the mastermind behind the course and an associate professor of computer science at the University of Helsinki, to begin the project in the first place. He wanted to equip voters with the necessary information to weigh in on how the country should invest in and regulate AI.
In the US in particular, a study published last week by the Center for the Governance of AI at Oxford University found that many Americans don’t realize the nature or prevalence of AI—that it’s behind Facebook’s photo-tagging capabilities and Netflix’s recommendation engine. Policymakers are equally confused about the technology’s scope and capabilities, as they demonstrated when Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress in April of last year. Without a grounded understanding, the US risks regulating AI too obtusely—either unintentionally curbing innovation or failing to mitigate consequences.