AI certifications

JDMurray

Some AI-oriented certs are appearing. We should keep a running list in this thread until an AI Certification discussion group is created.

CompTIA AI+ expansion certs: https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/comptia-announces-ai-product-roadmap-expansion-covering-six-domains

AWS Certified AI Practitioner (beta registration opens August 13, 2024): https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-ai-practitioner/

And free AWS AI training at: https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/

srothman

Microsoft AI Engineer
Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn

International Association of Privacy Professionals - IAPP 
Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (iapp.org)

ISACA AI Fundamentals (CET)
Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals Certificate | ISACA

Global Skills Development Council - Generative AI in Risk and Compliance Certification
Generative AI In Risk and Compliance Certification | GSDC (gsdcouncil.org)

UnixGuy

I saw people doing "masters degrees in AI"... not sure how I feel about this to be honest

JDMurray

Many colleges have certificate programs in AI now too. It reminds me of all the certificate and Masters degree programs in Digital Forensics that appeared around 2009-2011. I think there was some of that for Blockchain as well. Whatever get the schools admissions, I guess.

There's quite a bit of marketing around the need for AI knowledge and skills for workers to remain useful in their (future) careers. I think this is like advising workers who drive vehicles for a living that they need to understand automobile design and mechanics. We (the workers) will need to know how to communicate with AI (prompting) to do our jobs, but should never need to know how it works to do our job unless we are working directly to improve AI itself.

An interesting read: AI is Mostly Prompting

srothman

UnixGuy said:

I saw people doing "masters degrees in AI"... not sure how I feel about this to be honest

In fairness, this is how I feel about most certifications, too. The training is fine, I get that. It's generally product/platform specific and make sense that any and all organizations ride the AI bandwagon, but given how relatively immature this is, and how quickly things are changing in this space, I have to wonder if any of these certifications are really worth it, or just opportunistic on the part of the vendors.

I do think CompTIA is on to something, and if they can continuously update and improve it will be a worth-while stream.

volfkhat

UnixGuy said:

I saw people doing "masters degrees in AI"... not sure how I feel about this to be honest

In a word:
SCAM.

In many words:
Most likely NOT worth the Dollar COST of the degree.

JDMurray

srothman said:
... but given how relatively immature this is, and how quickly things are changing in this space, I have to wonder if any of these certifications are really worth it, or just opportunistic on the part of the vendors.

Immature and fast-changing certainly describes where "AI" is at right now. It's amazing how things have changed just over the past year. I won't look at any AI article/podcast or YT video that's over six months old. Businesses are being forced to either market their goods and services in terms of AI-as-a-feature or be perceived as having fallen behind in a significant tech trend. At this rate, AI certs will need revising every 12-18 months. The certificate programs at universities will need constant revising too.

When will we reach "peak AI" and this whole "the next new thing" will begin to slow down?

scasc

There is also ISO 42001 for risk/compliance folks. Have heard pretty much the same as ISO 27001 in terms of process and robustness.

https://pecb.com/en/education-and-certification-for-individuals/iso-iec-42001