Microsoft now offers public courses for building AI skills
Its AI track includes courses on ethics and building learning models.
Microsoft has added an AI track to its Professional Program courses. The track is open to the public and is comprised of nine online courses -- each of which take eight to 16 hours to complete -- as well as a final project. "The program provides job-ready skills and real-world experience to engineers and others who are looking to improve their skills in AI and data science through a series of online courses that feature hands-on labs and expert instructors," the company said in a statement.
The track features courses focused on AI ethics, how to conduct a data study and building different learning models. Enrollees have three months to complete each separate course and each are offered four times per year. The final project course is six weeks long and is also offered four times per year. Once the full track is completed, students will receive a digital certificate. However, to get credit for each course, enrollees have to purchase Verified Certificates from edX.org, which hosts the program.
With so many companies focused on AI, providing ways for people to build their AI skills is useful to both those looking to work in the tech industry and companies who will need to recruit more AI experts as their development efforts expand. "AI is increasingly important in how our products and services are designed and delivered and that is true for our customers as well," said Susan Dumais, assistant director of Microsoft Research AI, in a statement. "Fundamentally, we are all interested in developing talent that is able to build, understand and design systems that have AI as a central component."
You can learn more about the program here.
