Google releases AI skills course in education push

Google rolled out a new course on Friday teaching people how to use artificial intelligence tools and announced its philanthropy arm is dedicating $75 million for 1 million Americans to take it for free as part of an initiative to make AI training more accessible.

The Alphabet-owned tech giant said its Google AI Essentials course, developed and taught by its own AI experts, teaches workers basic skills for using generative AI tools — such as Google's Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT — and is product agnostic.

The roughly 10-hour course is available online on Coursera for $49, and it comes with a certificate of completion that can be shared with prospective employers. It does not require a degree or any experience.

Google said the new AI course will also be available through nonprofits, companies and schools, noting that Miami Dade College will provide the course to all students enrolled in its AI college degree program.

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Google's non-profit, Google.org, has also set up a $75 million AI Opportunity Fund that will provide grants to workforce development and education organizations to offer the AI training for no charge to more than 1 million people in rural and underserved communities, educators and students, public sector, nonprofit leaders and small businesses.

Google said one of the first grant recipients from the AI Opportunity Fund will be Goodwill, which has offered Google's digital skills programs since 2017, resulting in some 400,000 Americans landing well-paying jobs.

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"AI offers significant opportunities to accelerate economic growth, particularly if people have access to the right resources and training," James Manyika, senior vice president for Research, Technology & Society at Google, said in a statement.

"Google.org’s new AI Opportunity Fund and Google’s AI Essentials Course are important next steps in our commitment to ensure everyone, everywhere can access AI training," Manyika continued. 

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"No single employer or policymaker will be able to modernize workforce programs on their own — we are committed to collaborating across industry, civil society and government to ensure the opportunities created by new technologies are available to everyone."