OUR WORLD - Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

PERSPECTIVES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Konstantinos
Kyranakis
Member of the Hellenic
Parliament, former
President of the Youth
of the European
People’s Party
Chances are that you fall at least in
one of those categories and if so you have
been exposed to the power of AI which
undoubtedly became a big part of our lives
in 2020 without making too much noise.
From face recognition to self-driving cars,
AI is growing exponentially and we need
to get ready for what is coming.
Kids entering first grade at elementary
schools this year, will be joining the
workforce in the decade of 2030. If
today we consider AI to be part of the
successful operations of a company or
a government, we can only imagine that
ten years from today it will be absolutely
necessary. It will be omnipresent and
its impact will be taken for granted. All
industries, including transport, logistics,
medicine, construction, defense,
architecture, customer service and even
tax authorities will be utilizing AI. We have
a duty to prepare the next generation for
what is to come.
That is the reason I submitted a
proposal to the Greek Parliament for AI
to be taught in schools. Obviously, no one
is expecting for 1st graders to become
Python developers, but if they learn from
a young age how to think algorithmically,
understand the purposes of AI and realise
what this technology can achieve, then
they will be able to go on and accomplish
goals that are hard to even conceive
today.
Concretely, basic methods and
patterns can be taught in the early
stages of elementary school, followed
by establishing a good base in intuitive
programming languages towards the
end of elementary. Stepping on these
building blocks, Machine Learning can
be progressively taught as a lesson that
combines mathematics and computer
science, two subjects that already exist
in schools. Gamifying this subject with
competitions such as Robotics will
also prove beneficial. Note that these
steps create a hazy path that could be
followed and mainly aim to initiate the
conversation of AI training in schools. I
expect that more bulletproof plans will be
created by expert committees when that
time comes.
A great experiment is going on in
Scandinavia right now. Finland has
foreseen the potential impact of AI and
created a course for efficient and effective
AI training for all, with an ultimate
objective of at least 1% of the population
getting trained. Similarly, Sweden spends
over half a billion € on AI research
programs such as W.A.S.P and heavily
invests in its universities. Already in 2018
French President Macron announced the
nation’s long term AI strategy and while
also mentioning that the country will be
investing north of 1.5billion € to boost
France’s AI capabilities. These are just
some of the examples that illustrate that
Europe is taking this issue seriously.
All that said, no investment will matter
if students across Europe today will not
become part of the AI revolution. For kids
with an inclination towards STEM subjects,
highlighting to them the power of AI from
an early age will only benefit them as they
will have a longer time to cultivate a good
understanding in the field. For all other
students, that will eventually focus on
other professions they will also likely end
up utilizing the power of AI, so learning
about it from a young age will ultimately
give them skills and knowledge so as
to become competitive and rise to the
challenges of the 2030 decade.
Europe can become a leader in AI,
10 years from now - so long that it starts
creating the future leaders of the subject
today, in schools. It follows that investing
in this proposal will lead to further
advancement of universities, state funded
research programs and easier talent
discovery by european companies. If we
want more “unicorns” in Europe, we need
bright young people that will have the
vision and the power to make european
companies, global tech winners.
Some people say access to capital is
the key to win the tech race. I think the
most valuable asset is human capital.
Technology is built by humans. And if
humans are intelligent enough to build
artificially intelligent machines that could
outsmart them, we owe it to our future to
educate our kids and make them smarter
than we are.
<strong>OUR</strong> <strong>WORLD</strong> | January 2021
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