By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera

Generative AI represents the most desired expertise on Coursera. Nevertheless, to fully leverage its capabilities and enhance national competitiveness, it is essential that we invest in AI education for the workforce in the public sector.

Today, I am excited to introduce AI in National Security: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Public Sector Missions, a new program from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) aimed at addressing the digital skills divide within the public sector by providing AI training tailored to their job responsibilities.

The course instructors consist of specialists in AI security and implementation, which feature Dr. Eric Schmidt, Former CEO and Chairman of Google; Andrew Ng, Coursera Co-Founder; Ylli Bajraktari, SCSP President; along with retired U.S. Air Force Lt Gen John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan, the inaugural Director of the Department of Defense Joint AI Center (JAIC). This newly designed four-module course seeks to equip public sector organizations with the knowledge and expertise necessary to remain leaders in AI innovation, successfully implement AI in their routine operations, and accomplish their objectives. This encompasses: 

• Acquainting federal employees with the geopolitical framework, ensuring that AI security and innovation become strategic priorities.
• Offering federal employees a summary of essential AI tools, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, elucidating their functionalities and potential uses, such as email and document creation, data visualization, and writing assistance.
• Enabling employees to conduct a comparative evaluation of various AI tools and models, recognizing their respective strengths and limitations based on criteria like output precision, data security, quality, and model architecture.

The Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) is a bipartisan, non-profit endeavor aimed at enhancing America’s long-term competitiveness as AI and other emerging technologies redefine the nation’s security, economy, and society. We are eager to observe how public sector employees will utilize this course to adopt AI tools, enhance their work, and foster new innovations.

Discover more about SCSP’s AI in National Security: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Public Sector Mission course and enroll now.

The article SCSP launches AI training on Coursera to drive public sector innovation and advance national competitiveness was first published on Coursera Blog.