The Latest Class Central: 8 Years in the Making

Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Online Course

Elements of AI

All-Time Top 100

University of Helsinki and Reaktor via Independent

(158)
5.6k
Found in Artificial Intelligence
Go to class

Taken this course? Share your experience with other students. Write review

Overview

The goal of this course is to demystify AI

The elements of AI is a free online course for everyone interested in learning what AI is, what is possible (and not possible) with AI, and how it affects our lives – with no complicated math or programming required. By completing the course you can earn a LinkedIn certificate. People in Finland can also earn 2 ECTS credits through the Open University. The course is available from May 14, 2018.

After taking the course, you will be able to:

  • Understand some of the major implications of AI
  • Think critically about AI news and claims 
  • Define and discuss what AI is
  • Explain the methods that make AI possible

 

Syllabus

Part 1

What is AI?

Part 2

Solving problems with AI

Part 3

Real world AI

Part 4

Machine learning

Part 5

Neural networks

Part 6

Implications

 

Class Central Charts

Reviews for Elements of AI Based on 158 reviews

  • 5 stars 84%
  • 4 stars 14%
  • 3 stars 2%
  • 2 star 1%
  • 1 star 0%

Did you take this course? Share your experience with other students.

Write a review
  • 1
  • …
Anonymous
Anonymous is taking this course right now.
The texts are a bit extensive but the course is all very well tailored for better understanding. The examples are based on daily scenarios and the peer review questions help on the engagement as well. Wo uild recommend for everyone who's looking for a theory-based AI course to then move into more practical [coding] examples.

Waiting for part II, where UH is planning to implement a some coding exercises in Python.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
PB
Pat B
by Pat completed this course, spending 3 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.
The overall and weekly course objectives were stated clearly, much more clearly than many other courses I have explored.

The course had lots of reading, including extra links to other pages. There were no videos. Each chapter’s material consisted of three pages, but they were long pages full of comprehensive information. It was an excellent introduction to just what AI is and the implications in today's society of the many applications of AI both now and into the future. The assessments were unforgiving, with only one attempt available for most questions. I made basic mistakes in some answers but managed to pass the course quite comfortably.

I found the course surprisingly interesting!
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Godwin A
Godwin completed this course.
I like the kind of awareness this course provides, helping everyone from different works of life to see how they can relate in the fields of AI. One of the most simple, non-boring, good material content, captivating free online certification course ever. Thought at first I will not have enough time to take the course because of my kind of schedule but when I started, just with my mobile phone, I couldn't let the course down. The most exciting part was wanting to see what your peers think about your review and waiting for your certificate.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Norbert H
Norbert completed this course.
The course covered the basics with lots of exercises. Many of the exercises were designed to evaluate how well the student understood the concepts, rather than whether the student had just read the material. I particularly liked how the course demystified AI by linking it to past concepts and theories. New ideas are often presented out of context (both in terms of related ideas and how the concepts are used) which makes understanding them and their relevance more difficult.

I look forward to additional courses in the series.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
John L
John completed this course, spending 5 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be hard.
I found this course interesting and necessary for a basic understanding if AI. The course was structured so that the concepts evolved nicely from beginning to end.

I recommend this course to anyone who wants to start their journey into the understanding of AI. I now have more insight into the biases of google search and facebook ads and i understand the need to look for alternative searches so as to not be bogged down by liberal biases as exemplified in google, facebook, and twitter.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Podense P
Podense completed this course.
Great place to learn the main concepts of AI. The course gives a great overview of AI scope in general and also in easily readable and understandable language explains some mathematics behind the techniques. Very recommend for everyone!
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
This is a course for you who want to familiar youself with AI on a general level, to be able to more distinct understand the possibilities and limitations of this matter, and be able to critically understand medial picture.

The design is fresh, with lots of practical moments and problem solving. Thus enhancing learning.

Some parts of the course has a pretty low academic level, more targeting people with no matematic or statistic knowledge.

The part I liked the most is the last part when discussing AI in the context of today's media and debate. I would have liked more of that discussion, and less practicing on counting game theory and statistics. (the wolf, hen and grain exercise was for the elementary school).

But I strongly recommend 1% of the population to take this course. A follow up, with a discussion on influencers and critics in the field would be a great thing.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
The course for me was too chatty meaning that the text was full of irrelevant sentences. Despite the fact that those sentences were on-topic, they were more like decorations rather than giving more in-depth information. In addition, there should have been more text-related graphs and schematics to further enchance learning. Although, there were lots of pictures, only few were illustrating actual information the text told. Overall, the course did give an insight into AI.

This doesn't suit well for those who like to get to the point, who have photographic memory or want to have a more informative introductory course into AI. Despite this, the course would suit very well for, say 9th graders or younger. But also for those people who do not study technology yet want to have a good life-like overview about AI with every-day examples.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
Väldigt intressant och högaktuellt ämne. Korta och enkla kapitel med bra "extra viktiga" avsnitt tydligt markerade, lite som att gå en snitslad bana. :-) Förutom kapitlet som tog upp sannolikhet och odds var det en enkel kurs som borde passa vem som helst. Själv var jag tvungen att repetera gammal skolmatte för att kunna tänka/räkna rätt.

Bra att kursen är öppen och att man kan hålla på under en längre tid, passade mig som gjort kursen i diverse gymnastikhallar när jag väntat på barn som är på träning.

Kursen har gett mig en grundförståelse för AI och tillsammans med några utmärkta föreläsningstillfällen med inbjudna användare/kunniga experter som kollegor arrangerat har jag en bättre bild av vad AI kan bidra och bidrar med. Tack/Johan
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Alexander S
Alexander completed this course, spending 2 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.
I found this course to be a fantastic introduction to the conceptual as well as technical elements of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Although these aforementioned fields are heavily rooted in algebra and advanced calculus, the course content was very good at breaking down all of this complexity for those of us who do not necessarily have a conventional mathematics background.

Some of the modules (such as the module on neural networks) might warrant you having to watch a couple of additional videos for further clarification, but on the whole, I really enjoyed the experience of working through this course.

I encourage anyone who is interested in this undoubtedly exciting intellectual space to give this course a go!

Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Olivier B
Olivier completed this course, spending 2 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.
Il est nécessaire d'améliorer la compréhension du domaine de l'Intelligence Artificielle en entreprise, ce qui permettrait d'ouvrir sur de nouvelles possibilités tout en limitant les fantasmes...

Ce cours de l'Université de Finlande (https://lnkd.in/gH3QvJx) est assez agréable à lire et permet un premier niveau d'acculturation au sujet, en montrant de façon concrète les grands principes, avec des exercices qui ne feront pas de vous un Data Scientist (^_^), et en évoquant les sujets sociétaux.

Un article des Echos présentant la génèse du cours : https://lnkd.in/gsRrDxB

Ayant une mémoire visuelle, j'aurais apprécié un peu plus d'illustration des différents concepts au fur et à mesure du cours (ce qu'il manque pour une 5ème étoile).
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
This course is extremely well written and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in AI or computers. The language is simple and it is overall very easy to follow. I found the tasks fairly challenging in the first few sections, however over time, there were less and less practical tasks and more theoretical or subjective ones. In my opinion the course should build on the knowledge and make tasks increasingly difficult. I felt in the last few sections that I was only reading and never really had to answer any exact questions that tested your understanding well. This is why I only gave 4 stars instead of 5. The course should include more practical, i.e. mathematical or logical task, which build on the overall knowledge better.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
I enjoyed how the course introduced basic principles of AI and connected them to every day life. The introductionary section of each task gave broad idea of the concept at hand and the task itself guided to more specific details. Also, I feel that the course was able to "de-demonize" AI showing how many different fields there are already using AI and how AI differs from e.g. machine learning.

Having backgroung in computer science I did find the course easy and somewhat childish, but it was nice to refresh my memory as well. I can easily see how people with different backgrounds can benefit from the course and how it might help them to understand the world better.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
I can warmly recommend this course to anyone with the slightest interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning or the technology of the future in general. The authors has found a good level of information so that anyone can understand the essense of the course without any prior knowledge of the subject. There are some exercises, both mathematical and theoretical, that helps the student to grasp some key concepts without beeing too advanced or complex.

The online environment is also very nicely designed and easy to use, which allows the course content to take the front seat.

This course was a great start on my AI learning journey.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
Very interesting course with some basic reading on AI and underlying logic. Very practical examples and hands on excercises based on readings and examples. The course content is logical and very halpful in learning the basics on how AI works. I found the content to be from easy to moderately difficult. A little of mathematical understanding is needed, but course had good links to supplementary information for refreshing or learning needed topics. It was also good that one can do course in own speed or the course can remind you to do one chapter (six in total) per week, which is quite nice and relaxed space.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Sagar L
Sagar completed this course, spending 6 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.
A very nice introductory course for anyone who'd want to learn about what AI is and what it is not. From the early phases of development to current day challenges and accomplishments are covered nicely. The course mostly has reading content only (no videos) but the interface and the exercises are quite engaging. In fact, the UI is so good that you can complete it on your mobile itself. To make the most out of the course, read the Wikipedia articles of all the mentioned topics and projects; that'll be really helpful.

You can complete it in a week itself. It's easy and engaging!
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.


Someone did a good job creating this course

It was accessible course, easy to get going. Still I learned a lot. I liked the questions. I’m a bit impressed over the fact that you couldn’t really google the answers. I had to concentrate and really focus when I made the tests, and that was good. And I realized there is a lot to more learn.

I took a while to get the certificate, so I almost forgot about the course. Don’t know if that is good or bad. It was a nice surprise though when it came. I even reminded colleagues and friends once again to sign up.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
It is a very good introduction course to AI. This is relatively complicated and diverse subject and finishing the course, I personally feel more comfortable and familiar with it. Now I can understand the discussions around AI a little bit better and I think, if one wants to study more and deeper, the course put you at a very good position for that matter.

If it was to me, I wanted more practices and exercises. Also some questions are not clear the first time you read them but again you can find enough extra material if you do a simple search yourself.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
This course is really good! I completed the course and also downloaded my certificate.

The course is designed very systematically, very carefully weave the concepts along with stories and examples making sure the reader gets the concept very well. Also, some exercise are easy and some of them are moderate.

The course covers multi facets of AI, its inception, General perception, case studies, applications, methods etc. as an elementary course this is really good and more importantly it develops the interest into the reader about the AI.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
I loved the course. It provided a good overview of the AI domain in general.

I am an Industrial Engineer and have been in the work force (sales) for the last 20 years; and currently considering a change of direction in career and/or an addition to my personal knowledge base and skill-set for personal satisfaction.

This course certainly expanded my horizons for exploring the possibilities that exist out there both in terms of work/business as well as education and intellectual fulfillment.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
Anonymous
Anonymous completed this course.
I did not find the reading and the exercises well balanced. Reading was fun, the goal and focus of the exercises not so. For someone having studied some maths and computer science - just read the text or take another class; you’ll get frustrated with the vague definitions used in the exercises.

I finished the course just to improve the statistics of the course itself ;)

(Thumbs up for the effort of preparing the course, with still a bit more effort it will be a good one)
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
  • 1
  • …

Class Central

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Sign up for free

Never stop learning Never Stop Learning!

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Sign up for free