Considered to be the leading United Nations-platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI, the AI for Good Global Summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the ITU in partnership with UN Sister agencies.
Jim Stolze was invited to give a brief update on his National AI-Course. Inspired by professor Teemu Roos (Elements of AI), he launched a free, online learning program for everyone in the Netherlands that wants to get a basic understanding of what Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are about. The course consists of video-interviews with professors, fun animations and well written text that was designed for a 'mobile first' audience.
But this is not how we usually talk about AI. The general debate tends to circle around regulation. And although important, it is primarily a process that is very slow and often covered by a veil of legal jargon. The stuff that mostly excites law-makers and lobbyists. In the real world, ordinary people interact with AI-systems all day, every day. So, if we want to make sure that the future of AI is bright, we'd better involve as much people as we can.
If we succeed at educating the public around how their data is being used and what the upside as well as the downside could be, I think our future with AI will be much more inclusive and appealing.
We need well informed citizens and critical consumers to hold both our governments and tech-companies to the highest ethical standards. Not because they are legally obliged do so, but because their end-users don’t expect anything else. Following Finland and The Netherlands... which country do you think is most likely to add a free online AI-course to their national AI-strategy?