AI for All: Amazon’s Pledge to Train 2 Million by 2025

AI education is crucial for unlocking the full potential of this transformative technology. To effectively tackle the world’s most challenging problems, we must ensure that AI education is accessible to all who want to learn.

Amazon has recently introduced a new initiative called “AI Ready” which aims to offer free AI skills training to 2 million individuals worldwide by 2025. In order to achieve this objective, Amazon is launching fresh programs for both adults and young learners, and expanding its current free AI training programs. This move is aimed at eliminating the financial barrier that often prevents people from accessing these essential skills.

Three fresh proposals have been introduced:

• There are eight AI and generative AI courses available, all of which are completely free.
• The AWS Generative AI Scholarship by Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now available to over 50,000 students from high schools and universities worldwide. It grants them access to a fresh course on generative AI through Udacity.
• Code.org has partnered with us to create a new collaboration aimed at facilitating students’ understanding of generative AI.

The demand for a workforce proficient in artificial intelligence has reached unprecedented levels. A recent investigation conducted by AWS and research firm Access Partnership has revealed the following findings:

• Seventy-three percent of employers consider hiring AI-skilled talent as a top priority. However, a staggering three out of four admit to being unable to fulfill their AI talent requirements.
• Employers anticipate a salary increase of up to 47% for workers who enhance their skills in AI.
• In the upcoming five years, AI is anticipated to play a more crucial role in the business landscape, as 93% of companies project the integration of AI solutions throughout their entire organizations.

Amazon is introducing AI Ready, a program aimed at assisting individuals who are eager to gain knowledge about AI and take advantage of the immense opportunities it offers. These initiatives have been developed to create pathways for both current professionals and the next generation, enabling them to explore and benefit from the field of AI.

Amazon free training in generative AI for in-demand job roles

We are pleased to announce the launch of eight new AI and generative AI courses that are free of charge and designed to support professionals in their respective workplaces. These courses cater to a wide range of individuals, from beginners to advanced learners, and are tailored to meet the demands of in-demand jobs. Business leaders and technologists alike can benefit from these courses, which complement the existing 80+ free and low-cost AI and generative AI courses and resources available through AWS.

Programs catering to both business and non-technical individuals:

• Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Generative AI Learning Plan for Decision Makers
• Introduction to Amazon CodeWhisperer

Courses for developer and technical audiences

• Foundations of Prompt Engineering
• Low-Code Machine Learning on AWS
• Building Language Models on AWS
• Amazon Transcribe
• Building Generative AI Applications Using Amazon Bedrock

Generative AI scholarships worth $12 million are available

AWS is committed to providing educational opportunities to students from underserved and underrepresented communities worldwide. As part of this commitment, AWS has partnered with Udacity to offer scholarships worth over $12 million to more than 50,000 high school and university students through the AWS Generative AI Scholarship program.

Our aim is to assist a large number of students. Students who meet the criteria can enroll in the new Udacity course, Introducing Generative AI with AWS, without any cost. This course, developed by AI specialists at AWS, provides students with a comprehensive understanding of fundamental generative AI principles and offers practical guidance through a project-based approach. Upon successfully finishing the course, students will receive a certificate from Udacity, which can be used to demonstrate their expertise to prospective employers.

Discover the exciting world of generative AI with the all-new Hour of Code Dance Party: AI Edition

Amazon has initiated a fresh partnership between Amazon Future Engineer and Code.org to commence the Hour of Code Dance Party: AI Edition. In this one-hour session, students will have the opportunity to delve into the realms of coding and AI, enabling them to craft their very own virtual music video. These videos will be set to popular songs by renowned artists such as Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, and many others.

Participants will have the opportunity to create choreography for their virtual dancers and utilize emojis as prompts for AI to generate animated backgrounds. This engaging activity aims to introduce students to the concept of generative AI, where they will learn about the utilization of large language models to power predictive analytics. These analytics are responsible for generating new images, text, and various other forms of content.

During Computer Science Education Week, which is scheduled for December 4–10, the Hour of Code event will be held worldwide, involving students and teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade. Furthermore, Code.org, the organization behind Hour of Code, will receive a generous contribution of up to $8 million in AWS Cloud computing credits from AWS, the leading cloud computing platform, to enhance its support for this initiative.

Investment in training for cloud skills

Amazon’s latest AI Ready initiative complements AWS’s ongoing commitment to invest substantial funds in offering free cloud computing skills training to 29 million individuals by 2025. This training program has already successfully equipped over 21 million people with the necessary skills.