So this last week - I went to Sofia, invited by the Bulgarian Ministry
of Education to talk about Artificial Intelligence and Innovation in
Europe on this area. This week - off to Ukraine, but that is a different story.
This conference in Sofia, Bulgaria,
Educate to Create, has relevance: the estimation is that 40% of the future Jobs will
be taken over by AI. This is distruptive to our society where we have
been accustomed to go to school, get a job and stay in that job for the
next 40 years until retirement. This will not
be the future. Does this mean that the job security will be a thing of
the past? Not necessarily.
This conference talked a lot about educating the students in
schools and also higher education towards transversal skills. These
skills are the ones needed to do the Jobs that machines simply cannot
do. Major other concerns in the conference raised were:
so-called life drop-out students, how could AI help them? (My
suggestion was to let AI identify them by their smartphones and push
education at the personalized manner to their favorite screens... we
need to go where the people are - listen to what they have
got to say for developing these emerging technologies)
Indeed the higher education faces the point in reality where it is
in danger of falling behind. - We have hired teachers and lecturers at
tenure track positions. For those of the readers that do not know, that
means - for life. And we are facing the fact
that the Jobs of tomorrow require skillsets that were not around when
they got their training... No longer can we repeat our everyday life as
it is, but the future requires initiation, active participation and
adoption to the changing technologies and reqirements
of the labour Market. This is the applies directly to teachers.
Even university lecturers are required to keep up with the
advancements of the technologies around. This is a necessity. This is
the future. Siri will soon be able to scout through the Learning
resources of the internet - present us with the most suitable
courses. Tell us which modules we already know and indeed how long does
it take for us to study the ones we can learn from. Our students will
be able to do this as well. This means - if you are uninspiring lecturer
repeating things they already know - they
will get super snappy lecturer from ted talks to explain it faster and
better for them.
Today, I was inspired by so many things. Did you know that Malta
has the only Ministry that has combined both Education and Employment? I
Think Finns - we could learn from this. Did you know that western
Civilization in the world might only have to work
4h per day when the Robots take over..? Did you know that Bulgaria is
the country who puts education first - to the front lines... and why
wouldnt they..?
Over the two days in Bulgaria, I was very impressed by many things -
but not the least by the debuty minister of education, Ms Karina
Angilieva. Her drive, her insights, her vision, her humble nature of
inviting experts and learn from them. This is a product of Bulgarian
Education system and for a small system, they should be proud.
In Finland, we have 6M people. In Bulgaria we have 7M. We have the
same size identity - innovate or be left behind... luckily, both
countries are excelling on the things we do. I have a suggestion: Let’s
do it together! No just Finland - Bulgaria. But
the rest of the Europe. Our artificial intelligence is in the cutting
edge - drive on this momentum. Not let our fears to stop us from
adopting to the world where not only our cars drive themselves but our
students use the best quality Learning resources around
the world to excell. This is our times as Europeans to talk about what
we want our artificial-intelligence driven world to look like. Let’s do
this!
Of cours to follow the discussion, become a Learntech Accelerator
followers here and listen to our future webinars on these exact topics
here.
/ Lyhyesti suomeksi viime viikolla Bulgariassa paikallisen opetus- ja
tiedeministeriön kutsumana, puhumassa tekoälystä. Koko päivä ja
eilinenkin oli innostavaa - Eurooppalaisina meillä on mahdollisuus olla
vahvempia yhdessä. Tämän tulevaisuuden teknologian hyppysissä,
olemme kaikki nöyriä. Toiset pelkäävät tulevaisuutta, jossa
terminaattorit tulevat ja ottavat vallan maailmalla. Olemme kuitenkin
todella kaukana siitä maailmasta, jossa koneilla on tietoisuus. Tällä
hetkellä tekoäly on ns. Heikkoa tekoälyä ja itseasiassa
tätä on ollut olemassa jo vuosikymmeniä. Kehitys näyttää näennäisesti
nopealta mutta on itseasiassa hidasta - todellisiin tekoälyn eettisiin
vaaroihin on siis matkaa. Ne ovat edelleen Science Fictionia, tapahtuen
ehkä tulevaisuudessa...
Silti - tämä kaksi päivää Bulgariassa inspiroi minua. Miksi? No
koska tekoäly on upea leikkikenttä - paljon tilaa innovaatioille.
Toisekseen siksi että tämä pieni maa, (7M ihmistä) on monella tapaa
samankaltainen kuin omamme. Meidän täytyy pinnistellä
menestykseen ja Bulgarialaisilla on huikea varaopetusministeri, täynnä
tarmoa, energiaa ja ennen kaikkea nöyryyttä oppia muilta. Viisas ei ole
se joka tietää eniten, vaan se, joka seuraa eniten tietävää ja innovoi
sen pohjalta.
Kaikenkaikkiaan kokemuksena tämä päivä oli rockstar-tykitystä.
Paljon ideoita. Paljon uusia kontakteja. Toisinaan työllä jota teen on
merkitystä. Se oli tänään. Huomenna takaisin täyttämään lomakkeita...
nämä tietysti töitä jotka onneksi tulevaisuudessa
robotit hoitavat puolestamme... Uskonpa niin - että tämä yhteistyö
tulee poikimaan yhteistä myös tulevaisuudessa. Kaksi päivää well spent.
Tällä viikolla Kiovaan.