AI Truck helps people to experience and experiment with AI

The goal of the AI Truck – built by students from Omnia and Aalto University – is to help Finnish people experience and experiment with Artificial Intelligence and to teach them key concepts related to AI. The truck will tour the Helsinki metropolitan area and the regions of Häme and Pirkanmaa from May 28 to Midsummer, visiting Tampere (Hatanpäänkatu 6) on 9 June at 12-17 o’clock.

AI is changing our everyday lives and work also here at Tampere. AI applications observe the world with and for people, draw up budgets and sales prognoses in the business world, and recommend music or movies suited to our tastes. AI is also changing the world of work – a need to re-educate as many as one million Finns has been brought up. In the future, AI will touch upon nearly every sphere of our everyday lives, so it is important that people understand what AI is and how it works.

AI is already here. We use it in many applications both in our free time and at work, perhaps unaware that AI is operating in the background. It is, however, important that the Finnish people understand what AI is and how it works, because the change driven by AI impacts us all. In all changes, learning has a key role, and it is great that the AI Truck will help visitors get acquainted with and learn more about AI, says Jussi Tolvanen, Managing Director of Microsoft Finland.

To respond to this need, the city of Espoo, Lenovo, Microsoft Finland, and Omnia are launching an AI Truck tour. In the AI Truck and in the AI area to be set up around it, Finnish people are offered experiences through which they can learn about the operating principles of AI and see what AI does in practice.

Learnings about AI via concrete tasks and room escape

The visit in the AI Truck is planned to be an escape room game in which 4 to 6 participants together solve three tasks that help them to understand the roles of data, learning and algorithms in AI.

The story of the 10- and 20-minute-long game is built on an expert of artificial intelligence, Professor Spark Plug. He has developed artificial intelligence and robots throughout his life, and as a forward-looking researcher, envisioned how artificial intelligence can help mankind in current and future challenges.

As part of the tasks players interact with the robot and cooperate with it. Players see how the robot learns and understand the role of data and algorithm in artificial intelligence. At the same time, they get an idea of ​​what artificial intelligence could do for us in the future.

A separate experience area is set up in front of the AI Truck, offering visitors the opportunity to examine, for instance, facial and speech recognition and voice control.

The text is based on a press release and information on tekoalyrekka.fi web page (only in Finnish).