Amazon is launching free educational courses on generative artificial intelligence (AI) to promote "critical skills" among adults and young learners worldwide. The company's initiative, named "AI Ready," expands its existing AI skills training programs based on AWS, now including eight free courses covering AI project management and development. Amazon reports that 21 million people have already acquired AWS cloud computing skills through its programs, and it aims to have 2 million individuals utilizing its AI courses by 2025.
With growing demand for AI talent in job vacancies, companies are willing to offer higher salaries to individuals with relevant skills. However, Amazon's courses also serve the purpose of promoting its own AI products. The offered "non-technical" training introduces people to the fundamentals of generative AI, project planning around AI, and the use of Amazon's CodeWhisperer code generator. Additional courses teach machine learning on AWS, language models, and Bedrock AI app development, aiming to position Amazon's AI technology alongside major players like Microsoft/OpenAI and Google.
Those interested in Amazon's free courses can access introductory generative AI training and familiarize themselves with CodeWhisperer on the AWS Educate website. The remaining free courses, including training on using the speech-to-text translation generator from Amazon Transcribe, are available on the AWS Skill Builder website.
