Amazon Launches Free Courses on Generative AI for All

Amazon has announced a new initiative called ‘AI Ready’, which offers free educational courses on generative AI, one of the most promising and emerging fields of artificial intelligence. Generative AI is the ability to create new and original content, such as images, text, music, or code, using AI models. Generative AI has various applications across different domains, such as content creation, design, marketing, and customer experience.

The ‘AI Ready’ initiative aims to democratize critical skills and empower diverse learners, from business and non-technical users to developers and technical users, to explore and leverage generative AI for their personal and professional growth. By 2025, Amazon plans to enable 2 million users to access its AI courses, in addition to the 21 million users who have already acquired AWS cloud computing skills through Amazon’s initiatives.

The Courses Cover Various Aspects and Perspectives of Generative AI

Amazon offers eight free courses on generative AI, which cover various aspects and perspectives of the field, and cater to different job roles and skill levels. The courses are available on two platforms: AWS Educate and AWS Skill Builder.

For business and non-technical users, Amazon offers three courses that provide an overview and introduction to generative AI and its applications:

• Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence: This course, available on AWS Educate, delivers an overview of generative AI, its applications, and fundamental concepts, including foundation models, which are large-scale AI models that can generate diverse types of content.
• Generative AI Learning Plan for Decision Makers: This is a comprehensive three-course series on AWS Skill Builder that elucidates the strategic planning of generative AI projects and the establishment of AI-ready organizational frameworks.
• Introduction to Amazon CodeWhisperer: This course, available on AWS Educate, instructs users on how to use Amazon CodeWhisperer, an AI code generator that can produce entire lines of code based on natural language prompts.

For developers and technical users, Amazon offers five courses that provide practical and hands-on guidance on various aspects of generative AI, such as prompt engineering, machine learning, and language models:

• Foundations of Prompt Engineering: This course, available on AWS Skill Builder, offers insights into prompt engineering fundamentals, focusing on designing inputs for generative AI tools and advanced prompt techniques. Prompts are natural language queries that elicit desired outputs from generative AI models.
• Low-Code Machine Learning on AWS: This course, available on AWS Skill Builder, provides guidance on how to perform data preparation, model training, and deployment without extensive coding knowledge, using AWS services and tools, such as Amazon SageMaker, AWS Glue, and AWS Lambda.
• Building Language Models on AWS: This course, available on AWS Skill Builder, explores how to use Amazon SageMaker distributed training libraries to construct language models and fine-tune open-source and foundation models, such as GPT-3 and BERT, for specific tasks and domains.
• Amazon Transcribe Getting Started: This course, available on AWS Skill Builder, delves into how to use Amazon Transcribe, an AI service for speech-to-text conversion using automatic speech recognition technology. The course also covers how to customize and optimize the service for different languages, accents, and vocabularies.
• Amazon Rekognition Getting Started: This course, available on AWS Skill Builder, demonstrates how to use Amazon Rekognition, an AI service for image and video analysis using computer vision technology. The course also covers how to use the service for various tasks, such as face detection, object recognition, text extraction, and moderation.

The Courses Offer Multiple Benefits and Opportunities for the Learners

The free courses on generative AI offer multiple benefits and opportunities for the learners, such as:

• Gaining valuable insights and practical knowledge on generative AI, one of the most cutting-edge and rapidly evolving fields of artificial intelligence, which can enhance their skills and career prospects.
• Accessing high-quality and engaging content, delivered by experts and instructors from Amazon and AWS, which can help them learn at their own pace and convenience.
• Exploring various use cases and examples of generative AI, across different domains and industries, which can inspire them to create innovative and original solutions for their own problems and challenges.
• Earning certificates and badges, upon completion of the courses, which can showcase their achievements and credentials to potential employers and peers.