EDUCATION

Finland Wants to Teach the World AI

Keeping with the theme of frigid climes, let's go to Finland. In 2018, the Nordic country said it wanted to teach the fundamentals of AI to 1% of its population. Now, it's expanding that AI course to the EU, with the goal of teaching 50 million Europeans. 

Let's start on day one

Last year, Finland launched "Elements of AI," a six-week crash course developed by the University of Helsinki and Reaktor, a global tech consultancy. Within three months, the country of 5.5 million people hit its 1% threshold. Elements of AI is the most popular course in U. Helsinki’s 379-year history. 

Note the timing

Finland will relinquish the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU at the end of the year. Its outgoing gift = expanding Elements of AI to 1% of the EU population by 2021. Starting next year, the course will be available in all 24 official EU languages. 

But since there are no restrictions on who can take the course, this is basically a Christmas present to anyone who speaks one of those languages. Since it launched, over 220,000 people from 110 countries have signed up to take the class (it was available online in English). 

The bigger picture 

The program is meant to equip EU citizens with timely digital skills, increase their practical understanding of AI, and boost innovation in the EU, Timo Harakka, Finland's Minister of Employment, said earlier this month. 

Finland, which has the world's youngest prime minister, isn't alone in prepping for AI. Countries and corporations around the globe have called for education and reskilling programs to prepare their workforces for automation-driven disruption. Amazon, for example, announced plans in July to retrain roughly one-third of its U.S. workforce. 

Bottom line: At the end of the day, Elements of AI graduates won't be able to explain the technical details of backpropagation or reinforcement learning. But as Harakka said, it's a step toward preparing the general population for AI, not just programmers. 

+ I'm going to take Elements of AI. I'll update you on my progress. 

AI

Your Snap Celeb Shot

On Wednesday, Snapchat released Cameos, a new feature that lets users stitch their faces into videos or GIFs. Using our vocabulary, Cameos let you deepfake a selfie onto a digital body.  

How it works: 

Take a selfie with Cameos, which provides a blue outline for your face.
Choose whether to enable two-person Cameos, featuring you and a friend.
Pick a digital video from a library of over 150 options.
Snap your Cameo to friends.

Big picture

Snap wants to stay at the forefront of mixed reality social features. As the company develops these features, it's quickly shipping them to users to get feedback and iterate. As for the deepfake part, don’t be too worried about any ominous use of Cameos. They resemble a cross between a dynamic Bitmoji character and a new-and-improved JibJab. 

Bill Hader, who's been virally deepfaked before, put it best: "It's a weird technology, man."

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Skip the line.

HARDWARE

The Facebook Doctrine

Facebook is creating an operating system (OS) to power its burgeoning hardware business, The Information reported yesterday. If successful, this new system could power Portal, Oculus, and whatever AR hardware is in the pipeline. 

• FB is also developing its own silicon chips and intelligent voice assistant, but no word on when either will be ready for market. 

Sound familiar? FB is taking a page from Apple CEO Tim Cook's doctrine. Earlier this year, Cook said Apple has a "long-term strategy of owning and controlling the primary technologies behind the products we make."  

Feeling FOMO?

Facebook doesn't want to miss the next big social medium. Earlier this decade, it bought Instagram and WhatsApp in what now looks like a stroke of genius. Then FB veered into hardware acquisitions: 

• In 2014, it bought VR headset maker Oculus for $2.3 billion. 
• This fall, it snatched up neural interface developer Ctrl-labs for ~$750 million. 

Zoom out: As FB's hardware bets come into focus, it wants total control over these products’ destinies. A custom-built OS would help FB wean itself off Google's Android. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Apple pocketed 66% of global smartphone industry profits in Q3 2019, per Counterpoint Research. iPhone margins are still the envy of the silicon world. 

Quote: "The technology is a tool to make things work, but we're not launching things just because it's cool technology"—Björn Block, business area manager of Ikea's Home Smart division, to The Verge. Ikea's smart home business could be boosted by Big Tech's recently announced plan to create an open-source standard for smart devices. 

Read: Wired interviewed the Pentagon's AI chief, who says he doesn't want killer robots. That seems good?

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Apple has a top-secret team working on satellites that could provide internet connection to its devices, Bloomberg reported. The Tim Cook doctrine is leaving the stratosphere. 
• A federal study that tested 189 facial recognition algorithms consistently found racial bias.  
• Samsung will mass produce AI and cloud computing chips for Chinese search giant Baidu. 
• AirPods Pro are sold out most places online. Call it karma for the procrastinating holiday shopper. 
• IBM and the University of Tokyo announced a quantum computing partnership. 

GOING PHISHING

This Friday is off the hook, so we're going phishing. Three of the following news stories are real; one is deepfaked. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. The world's first floating dairy farm is staffed by robots. 
2. Investors in sketchy and defunct crypto exchange Quadriga CX want the late CEO's body exhumed and autopsied. 
3. A Canadian self-driving snowmobile startup raised $15 million in funding.
4. NASA's Mars 2020 Rover earned its driver's license.

THE TECHLARATION

What's better than a newsletter telling you about AI? A YouTube Originals series hosted by Robert Downey Jr. demystifying key AI subfields like machine learning and computer vision. 

He unfortunately doesn't dish the Iron Man tea, so us regular folk still won't learn how to build a flying suit or electromagnetic heart. See you next week for those special edition newsletters—Ryan.

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

No Canadian self-driving snowmobile startup raised $15 million (that we know of).