Dive Brief:
- In a move to democratize artificial intelligence, Coursera co-founder and AI expert Andrew Ng announced an "AI for Everyone" program for nontechnical business leaders, coming to the Coursera platform in early 2019.
- Engineers and data scientists might handle the technical details of AI, but business leaders also need to understand application opportunities for machine learning and deep learning in their organization, as well as what the technology can't do, Ng wrote in the announcement. The course will help nontechnical leaders build "a sustainable AI strategy" and serve a resource for technical employees to suggest to managers to promote understanding of the technology.
- Domain experts and engineers, millions of them, are critical to harnessing the potential of AI. But industry also needs millions of business leaders, managers, sales and marketing professionals, financiers and designers that can apply AI in their community and business, Ng said.
Dive Insight:
The course comes a little over a year after Ng launched a deep learning course on the Courssera with the goal of training millions of new AI experts. Hundreds of thousands of students enrolled since it launched last fall, and Ng and Coursera are working to expand the course with new materials, resources and events, Ng wrote.
AI innovation is more accessible than ever today, thanks to more open source software and information sharing between players in the space. But the concentration of AI power has been in the hands of a few, allowing them to exert considerable control over AI talent and capabilities, Ng said, speaking at The Atlantic Festival in Washington in October.
Industries outside of technology need help embracing the technology, and leadership is pivotal to ensure the outcomes and wealth distributions are evenly dispersed, he said.
To this end, last year Ng also launched Landing.ai, a startup to help bring AI and automation technology to the manufacturing industry through a consulting-like service.
