Finland knows it doesn't have the resources to compete with China or the United States for artificial intelligence supremacy, so it's trying to outsmart them. "People are comparing this to electricity – it touches every single sector of human life," says Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa. From its foundations as a pulp mill 153 years ago, Nokia is now one of the companies helping to drive a very quiet, very Finnish AI revolution. Last May, the small Scandinavian country announced the launch of Elements of AI, a first-of-its-kind online course that forms part of an ambitious plan to turn Finland into an AI powerhouse. To date, more than 130,000 people have completed the course.

HELSINKI: He runs a company that is a byword for technological innovation -- but Nokia's chairman had no qualms about going back to school to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI). Risto Siilasmaa, 51, said he signed up this summer for online courses on AI programming run by Stanford University. "I realized that I don't have deep enough knowledge on this phenomenon... Now I'm back studying programming after 30 years," he told Reuters on Friday by email. "I do not want to become an AI programmer. I want to deeply understand the abilities and limitations of AI." Since starting the courses, Siilasmaa said he had briefed the Finnish telecom infrastructure firm's board and managers on the subject.