Amazon is offering free AI courses, and no payment is needed. The AI Ready initiative by Amazon coincides with a recent AWS study that highlights a substantial demand for AI talent. The study also reveals the significant earning potential, indicating that individuals possessing AI skills could potentially enjoy up to a 47% increase in salaries. Get a head start on 2024, and build in-demand AI skills with these free 8 AI courses
Recognized as the most transformative technology of our generation, artificial intelligence (AI) holds the key to addressing some of the most complex challenges in the world. To unleash the full power of AI, it is imperative to ensure that AI education is within reach for anyone with the motivation to acquire these skills.
This is the reason Amazon is introducing “AI Ready,” a fresh pledge aimed at delivering free AI skills training to 2 million individuals worldwide by 2025. To accomplish this objective, we are initiating new programs tailored for both adults and young learners, while expanding our current free AI training initiatives. This approach aims to eliminate financial barriers and make these essential skills accessible to all.
The three initiatives include
- Introduction of eight new complimentary courses on AI and generative AI.
- Launch of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Generative AI Scholarship, offering over 50,000 high school and university students worldwide the opportunity to enrol in a novel generative AI course on Udacity.
- Establishment of a new partnership with Code.org, to assist students in acquiring knowledge about generative AI.
The demand for a workforce well-versed in AI has reached unprecedented levels. A recent study conducted by AWS and research firm Access Partnership revealed the following key findings:
- 73% of employers prioritize hiring AI-skilled talent, yet three out of four of them struggle to meet their AI talent requirements.
- Employers anticipate a potential salary increase of up to 47% for workers who enhance their skills in AI.
- AI is expected to play a more integral role in business operations, with 93% of businesses foreseeing the adoption of AI solutions across their organizations in the next five years.
In response to these trends, Amazon is introducing AI Ready, aiming to support individuals eager to delve into AI and seize the immense opportunities it presents. The following initiatives are tailored to create avenues for both the current workforce and the future generation to explore and benefit from AI education.
The Best Free Generative AI Training Courses by Amazon for In-Demand Jobs
Courses for Business and Non-Technical Audiences:
1. Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence
The course provides an overview of generative AI, its applications, and essential concepts such as foundation models. Access it on AWS Educate.
Key tenets include:-
- Understand how models like DALL-E 3 work
- Explore industry use cases and societal impacts
- Get an overview of Foundation Models
Read more about the scholarship here
2. Generative AI Learning Plan for Decision Makers
This is a three-course series guiding participants on planning a generative AI project and establishing an organization ready for generative AI. Available on AWS Skill Builder. Plan for Decision Makers learn the following elements
- Roadmap for identifying and scoping GAI projects
- Learn responsible AI policies
Here is the Amazon link
3. Introduction to Amazon CodeWhisperer
It instructs participants on using Amazon’s AI code generator, capable of producing entire lines of code. Discover it on AWS Educate and learn about:-
- Code generation in multiple languages
- AI pair programming
Here is the Link
Courses for Developer and Technical Audiences:
4. Foundations of Prompt Engineering
The course covers the fundamentals of prompt engineering, guiding users through designing inputs for generative AI tools, including advanced prompt techniques. Find it on AWS Skill Builder. Three important areas of learning include: –
- Craft prompts to communicate intended behaviour
- Learning techniques for more advanced control
- Tailor prompts for custom conversational AI
Enjoy learning this course here
5. Low-Code Machine Learning on AWS
The course explores the process of preparing data, training machine learning models, and deploying them with minimal coding and without in-depth knowledge of machine learning. Available on AWS Skill Builder.
Learn to:-
- Ingest, normalize, clean, and label data for ML models
- Use SageMaker to train models w/o coding skills
- Deploy trainable models into applications
Here is the link
6. Building Language Models on AWS
The course teaches how to utilize Amazon SageMaker distributed training libraries for constructing language models and fine-tuning open-source and foundation models. Access it on AWS Skill Builder.
The course tries to achieve the following
- Distributed training for large language models
- Fine-tune models like GPT-3 for better relevancy
Obtain the link here
7. Amazon Transcribe—Getting Started
The course provides insights into using Amazon Transcribe, a fully managed AI service converting speech to text using automatic speech recognition technology. Explore it on AWS Skill Builder and learn to:-
- Upload audio and have it automatically transcribed
- Integrate speech into contact centers & systems
Use this link
8. Building Generative AI Applications Using Amazon Bedrock
It instructs on utilizing Amazon Bedrock to construct generative AI applications. Find it on AWS Skill Builder and learn to:-
- Build next-gen apps with Codex, GPT-3, LLMs
- Optimize for natural conversations
Here is the link
AWS Generative AI Scholarship Worth 12 million
$12 million in generative AI scholarships will be provided by Amazon through the AWS Generative AI Scholarship. They offer Udacity scholarships valued at over $12 million to over 50,000 high school and university students globally. Particularly those from underserved and underrepresented communities.
The aim is to assist as many students as possible, and eligible students can enroll in the new Udacity course, “Introducing Generative AI with AWS,” at no cost. This course, developed by AI experts at AWS, introduces students to foundational generative AI concepts and guides them through a hands-on project. Upon successful completion, students receive a certificate from Udacity to demonstrate their knowledge to prospective employers.
To make the introduction to generative AI more accessible and enjoyable, Amazon is launching a collaboration between Amazon Future Engineer and Code.org, presenting the Hour of Code Dance Party: AI Edition. This hour-long coding and AI introduction allows students to create their virtual music video set to popular songs by artists like Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, and more.
Beginner AI Resources for Tech Enthusiasts
If you’re just getting started with AI and have some decent tech and coding skills, here are some beginner-friendly resources that can help you learn, even if you’re entirely new to AI.
AWS DeepRacer a Critical Amazon free AI courses
More of a hands-on learning lab than a traditional course, DeepRacer is free initially. Upon sign-up, you get 10 free hours, usable within 30 days. While additional hours may require a subscription, these 10 hours provide a great learning experience. DeepRacer allows you to dive into machine learning through a cloud-based 3D racing simulator, a fully autonomous 1/18th scale race car using reinforcement learning, and a global racing league.
Amazon’s Machine Learning University
A fantastic resource, Amazon’s Machine Learning University offers everyone access to the same machine learning courses used to train Amazon’s developers. It’s a free and comprehensive self-service pathway to grasp the fundamentals of machine learning.
Amazon CodeWhisperer
Getting Started: This free, self-paced digital course introduces learners to Amazon CodeWhisperer, an AI coding companion designed to boost developer productivity. Learn about its capabilities, setup, and integration with your programming language of choice. It’s a useful tool, and the course is a great introduction, especially if you’re into PHP and PhpStorm.
Amazon Bedrock
Getting Started: Another free self-paced digital course, this one introduces learners to Amazon Bedrock, a service for building generative AI applications. In just an hour, developers and technical audiences can explore Bedrock’s benefits, features, use cases, and technical concepts. Originally an internal Amazon tool, Bedrock is now available to everyone, making it worth your time to understand its capabilities.
Intermediate-Level Courses
Moving on to what Amazon considers intermediate-level courses, there’s a wealth of content to explore, so let’s dive in.
Twitch Series among Amazon free AI courses
AWS Power Hour Introduction to Machine Learning for Developers: This is a recorded series from a Twitch-based learning chat. It’s a valuable resource for grasping the foundations of machine learning, offering a practical perspective on what developers truly need to know to embark on their machine-learning journey. The series guides you on leveraging the power of machine learning and deep learning to enhance the intelligence of your applications.
Generative AI Foundations on AWS
As mentioned earlier, this course provides a deep dive into generative AI. Tailored for technologists already familiar with AI modeling, it’s a free, on-demand course offering conceptual fundamentals, practical advice, and hands-on guidance. The content covers pre-training, fine-tuning, and deploying state-of-the-art foundation models on AWS and beyond.
Generative AI with Large Language Models
In collaboration with DeepLearning.AI and Andrew Ng, a renowned figure in machine learning and education, AWS presents a hands-on course. This three-week program is designed to equip data scientists and engineers with expertise in selecting, training, fine-tuning, and deploying large language models (LLMs) for real-world applications. It brings us full circle, connecting with the educational offerings highlighted in the previous free AI learning roundup.