Generation AI, a Finnish initiative for AI literacy in education and research, has won the European Union’s 2026 Digital Skills Award for promoting AI literacy among children and young people. The award ceremony was held in Brussels on 30 June 2026.
There were 90 entries in the Digital Skills for Education category and 220 entries in the competition overall.
Generation AI is a multidisciplinary, multi-university research programme funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) within the Research Council of Finland. It develops research-based educational technologies, learning materials and learning packages to strengthen AI literacy. The project involves researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki, the University of Oulu and Code School Finland.
The programme helps children and young people understand the operating principles of AI and critically assess the ethical and societal impacts of AI-based technologies.
The educational technologies developed by the Generation AI research community enable pupils to explore the operating principles of AI without programming skills. For example, pupils can build simple classifiers or their own language model, examine how social media algorithms work and investigate the effects of algorithmic bias.
“We want to help children and young people understand how AI systems work and how they affect, for example, what they see online, how they are profiled and the ways in which decisions concerning them are made,” says Professor Matti Tedre of the University of Eastern Finland, the principal investigator of the SRC-funded project.
“To support learning, we have developed open tools and related learning materials for everyone, including the Generation AI Teachable Machine, Social Media Machine, Breaking Machine and Small Language Machine.”
In addition to ease of use, the solutions developed by the Generation AI community pay particular attention to data protection, safety and children’s rights. The tools run locally in the user’s browser, they do not track users, they comply with GDPR requirements and they do not transfer user data outside the classroom.
“We have also worked closely with teachers and pupils to ensure that the tools and materials we produce genuinely serve the needs of teaching and learning,” says University Researcher Henriikka Vartiainen of the University of Eastern Finland.
“Especially at a time like this, when our sense of control is disappearing and the AI narrative emphasises the claim that there are no alternatives, it is important to support young people’s own thinking and agency, meaning their opportunity to shape technology in ways that reflect who they are,” says Professor Teemu Roos of the University of Helsinki.
“From the perspective of children’s rights, it is essential that children understand how AI systems work and that learning involves children as active participants,” says University Lecturer Milka Sormunen of the University of Helsinki.
“The tools and materials developed in the project have been popular among teachers in Finland since the project began. We have also taken part in key events in the field, such as EDUCA and ITK, to present our solutions to Finnish education providers,” says Interaction Specialist Jari Laru of the University of Oulu.
“In addition to being used in Finland, the learning materials produced in the project have been introduced internationally through education and expert-led projects, including in several countries across Asia and Europe, as well as in Egypt and Mexico. The tools and learning materials have been praised specifically for promoting AI literacy and critical thinking,” adds Head of Pedagogy Jussi Koivisto of Code School Finland.
The openly accessible and freely available tools have already been used more than 200,000 times in over 50 countries. This demonstrates growing international interest in and demand for research-based learning solutions that strengthen AI literacy. The exceptional impact of the learning materials was recognised by the jury.
The Generation AI community also won the 2025 national Open Educational Resource of the Year award and has received awards at the international IEEE ICALT 2024, ACM Koli Calling 2025 and AACE EdMedia 2025 and 2026 conferences.
The tools and learning materials for developing AI literacy are freely available at https://gen-ai.fi/
For further information, please contact:
Professor Matti Tedre, project PI, University of Eastern Finland, [email protected]
University Researcher Henriikka Vartiainen, workpackage leader, University of Eastern Finland, [email protected]
Professor Kati Mäkitalo, workpackage manager, University of Oulu, [email protected]
Professor Teemu Roos, University of Helsinki, [email protected]
Head of Pedagogy Jussi Koivisto Code School Finland, [email protected]
