Many paths to learning about AI: continuing education, online and degree programs

FCAI is bringing artificial intelligence within everyone’s reach. Here are three ways to learn more about AI.

Since its inception in 2019, the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI) has made education a central activity. “But this doesn’t just mean teaching and research in universities,” says University of Helsinki and FCAI professor Teemu Roos. “Researchers, and the public, now understand and expect interaction and openness with society, through events, the media, and also lifelong learning.” As lead instructor for the massively open, and massively popular, online course Elements of AI, Roos is passionate about increasing the general public’s understanding of AI. “We’ve opened up the world of AI in multiple ways, from training future experts to extending education for all, and the following years will see even bigger things from FCAI Education.”

Here are three ways to learn more about artificial intelligence, from FCAI:

Training for professionals | Open education | Degree programs | plus, Research: AI in schools

Training for professionals

Data, Analytics, and AI for Professionals is FCAI’s main course offered through Aalto Executive Education. Formerly called the AI Diploma, this training program for executives and managers has been running for five years and is very personalized to participants’ needs. “In small groups, we combine the latest from the research side with the professional context of the participants,” says Roos. “There’s lots of interaction and we think about how to contribute both ways, from science and business. Participants can envision how to integrate the latest AI techniques into their own work, and the impact is apparent already during the program.” Case studies and projects have come from a variety of industries, such as chip manufacturing, services, finance, telecoms and even from the arts.

FCAI partner MinnaLearn also offers Elements of AI for Business, a training program for company staff based on the popular MOOC.

Open education

FCAI has brought AI to the masses through MOOCs, free and open online courses. The forerunner in this area is Elements of AI, which has surpassed one million users and is available in 26 languages. “There’s clearly a need and interest from the public,” observes Roos, “And we’re continually updating—I just wrote a new section on generative AI for the Elements of AI.” The MOOC portfolio at FCAI and the University of Helsinki has expanded to Ethics of AI, AI in Society and Building AI. “AI literacy is becoming an important civic skill and it’s about more than just technical knowledge—critical thinking plays a big part,” says Roos.

Beyond online courses, myriad events, for example at Think Corner or Helsinki’s biennial Science Forum, engage the public with various artificial intelligence topics. “The demand has really grown this year,” says Roos, who has been actively demystifying AI in the Finnish media. Open university courses, through Aalto University or the University of Helsinki, are other routes to becoming more familiar with AI.

Degree programs

AI-related degrees are the most sought after at both Aalto and the University of Helsinki. Master’s programs in computer science, data science, machine learning and AI were again the most popular in 2022, with a record number of applications. FCAI researchers supervised over 100 doctoral and nearly 800 master’s degrees from 2019 to 2022. Over 60 percent of these master’s theses were done in collaboration with about 100 industry partners. “Attracting smart people and producing talent in Finland is important for industry,” says Roos. “We’re training the experts of the future, and these degrees can open doors to anywhere.”

FCAI has a twice-yearly recruitment for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, but open applications can also be submitted anytime.

Research: AI in schools

Teemu Roos and colleagues are also actively researching how AI can be safely and effectively integrated into primary school. “This isn’t about how many laptops there are at school. It’s about helping kids build a thinking toolkit to cope in a world infused with AI, even if they don’t realize it.” Many of the interventions being tested at schools are in fact unplugged or offline. Finnish fourth graders, for example, are training AI systems to recognize objects presented to webcams, with an easy-to-use tool called GenAI Teachable Machine. “We want to make sure kids are safe to experiment with AI, and at the same time legal experts on our team are ensuring that children’s rights are respected when AI is involved in interaction or decision-making,” says Roos.

“AI has come into use very quickly and schools haven’t had a chance to react,” continues Roos. “Tech education used to be about learning to use computers and skills like word processing or even programming, but the distinct understanding of what is happening to one’s data and how it’s affecting our social behavior, that has been missing. We’re trying to help kids be familiar with tools and understand, why is something popular on TikTok or YouTube, why is it being shown to me, what happens if you are a passive passenger of social media? Building a thinking toolkit for AI isn’t specific to children—the results should be applied to adults, too,” Roos muses.