Ruth said he came up with the idea in the summer of 2017 after hearing that the Finnish government was seeking help from institutions to develop “lifelong learning” or specialized training materials on AI. .
Ruth knew he needed help making his work accessible to a general audience, so he worked with Reaktor. Together, they designed his website to be sophisticated, removing all programming-requiring elements from the introductory computer AI course he has been teaching to his computer science students for six years.
Finland wants to remain competitive in AI | Vesa Moilanen/AFP via Getty Images
However, Reaktor's marketers remained concerned that the course remained unnoticed by non-experts. So they came up with the idea of linking the course to an ambitious goal and promoting it. They convinced some of the country's largest employers to join. The company announced that this course, along with other industry initiatives, will ensure that at least 1 percent of Finland's population will be trained in AI by the end of 2018.
The pace of the initiative soon picked up. By mid-December, more than 250 companies have announced they will participate in an initiative called the “AI Challenge.” For example, paper giant Stora Enso has committed to training 1,000 of its employees in his AI. High-tech companies Elisa and Nokia have announced that they will train all of their employees.
Ville Valtonen, Chief Marketing Officer at Reaktor, said: “Companies participating in this challenge are encouraged to train their staff in the fundamentals of AI using our courses and any materials they deem appropriate. I promise.”
Ville Valtonen of consulting firm Reaktor at his Helsinki office | Janos Delker/POLITICO
In addition to the individual efforts of both companies, Reactor said that by mid-December, more than 10,500 people (of whom more than 6,300 were Finnish) had graduated from the course.
