Amazon hoping to train millions through free AI courses

Amazon hopes to provide two million people with free artificial intelligence (AI) training by 2025 as part of its new “AI Ready” initiative, the e-commerce giant announced on Monday.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most transformative technology of our generation,” Amazon said a press release. “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.”

The company will offer eight free AI courses, including five courses for developers and technical audiences and three courses for business leaders and nontechnical audiences, according to its press release.

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Several of the courses focus on generative AI, a form of AI that can produce original content and that has exploded in popularity over the past year following the emergence of the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT.

According to a recent survey conducted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Access Partnership, 92 percent of organizations expect to use AI tools within the next five years and 93 percent of employers expect to use generative AI tools within the same time frame.

Some 73 percent of employers also said they consider it a priority to hire people with AI skills. However, three in four of those same employers said they can’t find the talent they need, according to the survey.

Amazon is also planning to provide $12 million in scholarships to more than 50,000 high school and college students to take a course on generative AI through the online learning platform Udacity, the company said on Monday.