23.02.2021 Ankara
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the introductory meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Education and Awareness Project to be held in cooperation with TOBB and Global AI Hub.
Speaking
at the meeting, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that artificial
intelligence will quickly transform life, economy and ways of doing business,
adding, “It will be the private sector and SMEs that will drive this
transformation. In the industrial revolution, manufacturing evolved from body
strength to machine power. Now machine power will be transformed into brain
power, and machine, robot and human interaction will result in a skilled
workforce.”
Emphasizing
that data is now the most important source of wealth in the world,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As both individuals and companies and institutions, we
produce a lot of data. Today, you actually produce data in every product you
buy online, every link you click on, every photo you like. This data is so
large that it is very difficult for a person to analyze it alone in classical
ways. That's what AI helps to understand, analyze, and draw conclusions and
lead the way. In summary, AI provides its power from data, the more data there
is, the better AI works.”
Noting
that artificial intelligence has started to be used in consumer behaviors,
medicine, law and education today, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that SMEs and
enterprises are now using artificial intelligence to create value.
Stating
that Turkey should increase the number of young people in this field,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In this way, we will both grow the artificial
intelligence ecosystem and make companies and institutions benefit more from the
possibilities of artificial intelligence. There are two ways we can choose
here: Either we will lead the transformation of artificial intelligence, or we
will follow this transformation from afar. We don't have the option of not
integrating with artificial intelligence. Any system that is not integrated
with artificial intelligence will surely lose in this way. Target's moving too
fast. We don't have the option of developing technology in this regard and
watching from afar. We must follow this technology very closely and lead the
transformation of artificial intelligence.”
Reminding
that as TOBB and the Chamber-Exchange community, they have been aware of the
importance of artificial intelligence for a long time, TOBB President said, “We
know that we will need more young people specializing in artificial
intelligence in this age and in the near future. That is why we first
established the undergraduate department of Artificial Intelligence Engineering
in Turkey in 2019 within TOBB University of Economics and Technology, which is
the university of the Turkish business world. After this first, which we set an
example for the Turkish higher education system, artificial intelligence
engineering departments were opened in 3 other universities outside TOBB ETU today.
In undergraduate education, we are very interested in raising our young people
with other disciplines related to artificial intelligence focused on artificial
intelligence. Because one of our most important tasks is to improve the skill
set of the employment provided by our members, namely human capital.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
stated that they provide vocational trainings to employees and young people who
want to enter the employment market. We will lead the transformation of
artificial intelligence. Because that's what the age we're in now requires. The
training programs within the scope of this project will be implemented in two
ways in the form of technical-oriented and awareness-raising trainings.
In
technical-oriented trainings, high school, vocational high school and
university students will be gradually given “Introduction to Python” and
“Introduction to Machine Learning” courses, which will ensure that they are
introduction to basic artificial intelligence applications. In trainings aimed
at raising awareness, we will provide artificial intelligence and robotic
process automation technologies trainings to entrepreneurs, companies, SMEs,
faculty members and high school and vocational high school teachers.
With
trainings and webinars to be organized with it, we aim to raise awareness for
participants about these technologies and how they can integrate them into
their field. Basically, we aim to increase qualified man power and contribute
to the artificial intelligence ecosystem with the trainings we will provide
within the scope of the project. In this context, we plan to provide artificial
intelligence trainings to 50,000 people. Moreover, our young people who want to
participate in all these trainings will be able to benefit from this
opportunity free of charge. Our young people who successfully complete the
training will receive certificates from TOBB, TOBB University of Economics and
Technology and Global AI Hub.
Here
we especially expect the intense participation of women. In recent years, as
TOBB and Turkcell, we have given mobile application and code writing trainings
to women within the scope of The Future Writers Project. At this point today,
we say it's time to see women lead in artificial intelligence as well. I would
like to thank Global AI Hub and its CEO Fuat Beşer and his team for their
cooperation. I especially invite all industry stakeholders, company
representatives, professionals, academics, students, especially women, to this
great organization that will be attended by the entire artificial intelligence
ecosystem.”