Why Artificial Intelligence?

AI brings the biggest business and societal impact over the near future

• Education, government, social welfare, work, and employment are drastically impacted
• Global GDP may increase by up to 14 % (the equivalent of US$15.7 trillion) by 2030 as a result of the accelerating development and take-up of AI (PwC study)

​

2

NeurIPS registration 2002–2018: experts are the scarce resource that Europe needs to secure

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

Why Finland?

Finland is happy

• Finland is the happiest country in the world for the third year running in 2020.

Finland is innovative

• Finland is the seventh most innovative country in the world. Finland excels in technology and high-tech solutions.

Finland’s universities are the most effective

• Finland’s universities are the highest performing in the world (GDP-adjusted comparison).

​

​

3

More details:

​

• The United Nations World Happiness Report
• Bloomberg Innovation Index 2020
• Universitas 21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

Why AI in Finland?

Did you know that Finland is a pioneer in AI and machine learning?

4

World-class AI research and education in Finland

• University of Helsinki among the ten globally best AI and Data Science master’s courses for 2021 (Forbes)
• Aalto University Computer Science rankings (2019)

• World-class fundamental AI research in Finland since 1960’s
• Wide variety of leading companies developing and utilizing AI
• Helsinki is the #4 emerging startup ecosystem globally in 2020 (Startup Genome)
• Close cooperation between universities, authorities and companies

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

What is FCAI?

• Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI aims to create new types of AI, which can operate with humans in the complex world, and to renew the Finnish industry and society with this Real AI
• FCAI is a community of experts that brings together top talents in academia, industry and public sector to solve real-life problems using the Real AI

5

Focalizing world-class AI research in Finland

• International hub supporting Finland’s national AI program
• Academy of Finland research and impact flagship for 2019-2026, volume 250 M€
• Initiated by Aalto University (Aalto), University of Helsinki (UH), and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)

FCAI slogan

Real AI for Real People in the Real World

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI mission and objectives

Our goal is to create new types of AI, which can operate with humans in the complex world, and to renew the industry with this Real AI

What do we mean by that?

6

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI mission

7

REAL AI

Real AI solutions will bring AI systems closer to human cognition.

We do not attempt to replicate human cognition but provide ambitious and realistic technical solutions.

REAL PEOPLE

Real People will use AIs as companions and assistants – and AIs need guidance from people.

AIs we create can interact with humans in ways that are understandable, trustworthy, and ethically applied.

REAL WORLD

For AIs to be able to perform efficiently in the Real World, they need to work with scarce data and in situations where large, labeled training data sets are rare.

Real AI for Real People in the Real World

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI scientific objectives

8

• Present-day AI solutions work well only in a very small subset of simple domains
• New AI tools needed to overcome the key shortcomings of current AI systems
• To create the Real AI, FCAI has set up three grand scientific objectives:

DATA EFFICIENCY

TRUST & ETHICS

UNDERSTANDABILITY

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI research agenda

​

How to reach the Real AI that is data-efficient, trustworthy and understandable?

We build on our world-class machine learning expertise and create new types of AI by developing advanced modeling methods for both the world and the user

9

Key methodological goal: AI-assisted decision-making, design and modeling

FCAI develops AI techniques needed for systems which can help their users make better decisions and designs, and build better models, across a range of tasks from personalized medicine to materials design.

​

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

AI-assisted decision-making, design and modeling

10

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

Making FCAI research agenda a reality

11

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI impact agenda

FCAI promotes the Real AI that benefits society and industry, and helps solve the real-life problems of real people

12

• Scientific impact: FCAI produces 90% of the fundamental AI research in Finland and research output is on par with global top-20 universities; positive impact is maximized by working together with leading experts from diverse disciplines (AI and X)
• Educational impact: FCAI increases the competence of both �the workforce and the general public
• Economic impact: FCAI accelerates the renewal of existing businesses and creates new ones
• Societal impact: FCAI supports the transformation of society through effective and ethically responsible application of AI

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI academic collaboration

Fostering active bottom-up collaboration with top international researchers

Maintaining institute-level strategic academic partnerships with high-level international partners, including:

13

European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems

ELLIS Unit Helsinki hosted by FCAI

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI at the core of European machine learning research

• European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ELLIS gathers together the very best machine learning research in Europe
• FCAI hosts one of the first ELLIS units being the nodes that facilitate wide European collaboration
• ELLIS postdoc and PhD programs support excellent young researchers

14

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

FCAI company collaboration

FCAI creates new types of AI benefitting industry and society, including:

• 20+ collaboration partners
• 200+ ecosystem members

​

​

​

​

15

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

fcai.fi

Recent FCAI research examples

​

AI produces data synthetically to help treat diseases like COVID-19

Predictive models pave the way for better vaccines and vaccination programs

FCAI researchers advance applications of interactive AI

Every­one has their secrets – ma­chine learn­ing needs to re­spect pri­vacy

​

Building a computer that 'sees' the real world much better than the current methods do

Designing AI that understands humans’ goals better

AI in Finland | FCAI mission | FCAI research and impact

Read more about FCAI research at fcai.fi/news

fcai.fi