Amazon is now providing free educational courses on generative AI. Their goal is to help adults and young learners all around the world acquire important skills. This initiative, called “AI Ready,” expands on Amazon’s existing AI skills training programs on AWS.
The new offering includes eight free courses that teach AI project management and development. Amazon mentions that 21 million people have already received training in AWS cloud computing skills through their programs. They aim to have 2 million people use their AI courses by 2025.
Amazon’s Move in AI Education
According to Amazon, there’s a growing demand for AI talent, leading companies to offer higher salaries for skilled individuals.
However, Amazon’s courses also aim to showcase their own AI products. They will provide “nontechnical” lessons introducing people to the basics of generative AI, project planning with AI, and how to use Amazon’s CodeWhisperer AI code generator.
Other courses will cover AWS machine learning, language models, and the Bedrock AI app maker. This strategy could help Amazon’s AI technology compete with major players like Microsoft / OpenAI and Google.
If you want to take Amazon’s free courses, you can find the introductory generative AI training and CodeWhisperer introduction on the AWS Educate site. The rest of the free courses, which cover topics like using Amazon’s Transcribe speech-to-text generator, can be accessed on the AWS Skill Builder site.
AWS’s Commitment and AI Sector Investments
AWS’s Vice President of Data and AI, Swami Sivasubramanian, stated in the announcement, “If we are going to unlock the full potential of AI to tackle the world’s most challenging problems, we need to make AI education accessible to anyone with a desire to learn”.
Amazon is providing eight free courses on AI and generative AI (GenAI), along with scholarships for over 50,000 high school and university students. The company is partnering with Code.org, a nonprofit focused on computer science education.
While major tech companies like Google’s parent Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta work to bolster their standing in the AI space, Amazon is supporting Anthropic with a substantial multibillion-dollar investment.
Conclusion
Amazon is offering free courses in AI to help people worldwide gain valuable skills. They’re not only focusing on education but also showcasing their own AI products to compete with big players like Microsoft and Google. By collaborating with Code.org and investing in Anthropic, Amazon is actively shaping the future of AI education.
