Government to annually train up 250,000 people as AI human resources - basic education for all university students

Recently the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

政府、AI人材年25万人育成へ　全大学生に初級教育

データの世紀 経済 政治 ネット・IT

2019/3/27 6:34日本経済新聞　電子版

政府が策定する「AI戦略」の全容が分かった。人工知能（AI）を使いこなす人材を年間25万人育てる新目標を掲げる。文系や理系を問わず全大学生がAIの初級教育を受けるよう大学に要請し、社会人向けの専門課程も大学に設置する。ビッグデータやロボットなど先端技術の急速な発達で、AI人材の不足が深刻化している。日本の競争力強化に向け、政府が旗振り役を担う。

政府の統合イノベーション戦略推進会議（議長・菅義偉官房長官）で29日に公表する。

あらゆるモノがネットにつながる「IoT」の普及やビッグデータの活用に伴い、AIを必要とする事業は、IT業界にとどまらず様々な分野に広がっている。高度な専門技術者に加え、今後は幅広い人材がAIの基礎知識を持っていなければ、競争力ある製品の開発や事業展開は難しい。

一方、急速な実用化の速度に、大学や企業の人材育成は追いついていない。大学のAI教育の規模はまだ小さく、政府の調べでは修士課程を修了する人材は東大や京大、早大などの11大学で年間900人弱。全国でも2800人程度にとどまる。一般学生への対応はさらに遅れており、経済産業省によると、AIなどのIT知識をもつ人材は日本の産業界で2020年末には約30万人不足していると試算する。

政府は今の教育制度では十分に対応ができないとみて体制づくりに乗り出す。様々な分野で活躍する人材が「ディープラーニング（深層学習）」の仕組みやAIを使ったデータ分析のやり方といった基礎知識を持てるようにし、日本の産業競争力の底上げを図る。

目玉に据えるのが高等教育へのAI教育の導入だ。年間約50万人いる全ての大学生や高等専門学校生（高専）に初級水準のAI教育を課す。最低限のプログラミングの仕組みを知り、AIの倫理を理解することを求める。受講した学生には水準に応じた修了証を発行し、就職活動などに生かしやすくする。

そのうち25万人は、さらに専門的な知識を持つAI人材として育成する。初級水準の習得に加え「ディープラーニング」を体系的に学び、機械学習のアルゴリズムの理解ができることを想定する。「AIと経済学」や「データサイエンスと心理学」など、文系と理系の垣根を問わず、AIを活用できるよう教育を進める。

現状、4年制大学では文系が42万人、理工系が12万人、保健系が6万人いる。このうち、理工系と保健系を合わせた18万人に加え、文系の15%程度にあたる7万人がAI人材になる想定だ。合計で政府の新目標の達成を目指す。

社会人の学び直しもテコ入れする。2022年までに大学に専門コースを設置し、政府が費用の一部を支援する。年間2000人を教育する目標だ。AIの活用に必要な「ディープラーニング」などの習得を目指す。

政府は大学側に一連の改革案を順次、カリキュラムに反映するよう求める。企業にはインターンシップなどを通じてAIの技能をもつ学生の受け入れ環境を整えるよう促す。企業側がAI技能を持った学生を高待遇で受け入れるようになれば、大学側も積極的に教育課程に反映していくことが見込まれる。

Translation

The complete "AI strategy" formulated by the government was understood. A new goal was set to raise annually 250,000 people as human resources that could use artificial intelligence (AI). All university students, regardless of humanities or science stream, would be required to receive education on introductory AI course in the universities; specialized courses for working adults would be established in the universities. With the rapid development of advanced technologies such as big data and robots, the shortage of AI personnel was becoming serious. The government played a leading role in strengthening Japan's competitiveness.

It would be announced on the 29th at the government's Integrated Innovation Strategy Promotion Council (Chairman - Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga).

With the spread of “IoT,” where everything would be connected to the Internet, and the use of big data, businesses that required AI were spreading to various fields and not just limited to the IT industry. On top of having highly specialized engineers, if a wide range of human resources did not have the basic knowledge of AI,  to develop competitive products or businesses would  be difficult.

On the other hand, human resource development in universities and companies had not kept pace with the rapid speed of commercialization. The scale of AI education in the universities was still small. According to a government survey, the number in human resources who had completed a master's program was less than 900 people a year in the 11 universities such as Todai, Kyoto University and Waseda. It would stay at around 2800 people in the whole country. Preparation for students in general  was even more slow. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, it was estimated that in the Japanese industry about 300,000 people with IT knowledge such as AI were lacking in human resources by the end of 2020.

The government saw the current education system could not adequately cope with the situation and would set up a system. The aim was to raise Japan's industrial competitiveness by enabling people who were active in various fields to have basic knowledge such as the "deep learning" mechanism and the method of data analysis using AI.

The highlight would be the introduction of AI education to higher education.  Elementary class AI education for all college students and technical college students of approximately 500,000 would be taught annually. The hope was to make them know the minimum programming mechanism and understand the ethics of AI. Students who had taken the course would be issued certificates of completion according to their level so as to make it easier for them to find employments.

Among them, 250,000 people would be groomed as AI personnel with more specialized knowledge. In addition to basic level acquisition, the expectation was that “deep learning” would be systematically studied and that machine learning algorithm would be understood. It would promote education to enable the use of AI such as "AI and economics", and "data science and psychology" regardless of humanities or sciences streams.

At present, in the four-year universities there were 420,000 students in humanities, 120,000 in science, and 60,000 in health.  Among them, 180,000 people belonged to combined science and health; together with the 70,000, or about 15% students from humanities, they would be targeted to become AI personnel. The aim was to achieve the government new goal in total.

It would also re-work the learning of the working people in the society. Specialized courses in universities would be in place by 2022, and the government would support part of the cost. The goal was to educate 2,000 people a year. The aim was to acquire "deep learning" etc. necessary for using AI.

The government urged the universities to systematically reflect a series of reform plans in their curriculum. It encouraged companies to set up a welcoming environment for students with AI skills through internships etc. If the company side accepted students who had AI skills with generous treatments, it was expected that the universities would respond actively in their curriculum.

        It seems that Japan is preparing the country with a workforce that have AI skills in face of the coming new IT era.