Coursera, a leading U.S. edutech platform, is experiencing a remarkable surge in interest for its artificial intelligence courses, with a new user joining every minute on average in 2023, as reported by CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. This uptick is a direct response to the burgeoning field of generative AI, popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Maggioncalda highlighted generative AI as a “real hotspot” due to its wide-ranging impact. Coursera is expanding its AI course offerings through collaborations with AI pioneers like OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind. This move counters earlier investor concerns that generative AI apps might overshadow ed-tech firms. Instead, the demand for upskilling in AI has grown, benefiting platforms like Coursera.
With over 800 AI courses and 7.4 million enrollments last year, Coursera’s commitment to AI education is evident. The platform enhances learning experiences with a ChatGPT-like AI assistant, “Coach,” which offers personalized tutoring. This assistant utilizes large language models from both OpenAI and Google’s Gemini. However, Coursera has no plans to develop its own models, focusing instead on fine-tuning existing ones with proprietary data.
Coursera’s AI initiatives also include translating about 4,000 courses into various languages, with plans to increase AI role recruitments this year, marking a significant investment in the future of AI education.
