For the first time in Chile, the Saturdays.AI initiative will be held, a program that trains specialists in Artificial Intelligence (AI) through practice.
Saturdays.AI expects to train sixty experts in Artificial Intelligence in Chile with a program that has been successful in Europe, Asia, and other countries in Latin America.
So far, this initiative has trained more than 5,000 students around the world, creating an active community of AI enthusiasts who have presented 150 prototypes and proofs of concept based on this technology.
The program consists of 15 sessions every Saturday morning from July to December. At that time, AI students will develop their own applications to improve their skills in practice. Applicants to the sessions in Santiago de Chile can register from the Saturdays.AI’s website.
In Chile, the initiative takes up the international experience of the program but has also sought to differentiate it from this, as explained by Luis Dubó, the leader of Saturdays.AI in the South American country. “We take the basis of what the founders have done, and from that structure, we set out to add elements that we consider valuable for Chile. In that sense, we have placed particular interest in the social component of female inclusion and also in adding some extra content to enhance 21st-century skills in the participants “. Among these skills is Pitch, a tool for effective presentations focused on business; Design Thinking, methodology concentrate on innovation and product design; and, agile methodology, which promotes flexibility and adaptability in the development of projects.
The coordinating team in Santiago de Chile is composed of seven professionals from different areas with interest in technology and collaborative work.
IA with a social approach
Saturdays.AI has a social and inclusive approach in Chile, which seeks to establish balanced quotas between men and women. Tania Yovanovic, the coordinator of the initiative in Chile, points out that “traditionally the world of technology and programming has been linked to men and it is something that we want to reverse with Saturdays.AI. The truth is that in the promotion of the program, we have been meeting with great interest from women who are close to the technological world and who want to take the program.”
The program also aims to use AI to solve social problems, through a bank of NGO projects and public institutions that developers can choose to present the project. In other countries, the initiative has allowed the creation of technological projects with high impact in areas such as health.
At the end of the program, participants will present their developments in a Demoday, where sponsors and companies interested in recruiting talent or identifying business opportunities will be present.