The University of Florida is offering artificial intelligence courses to its faculty and staff for free as part of a years-long push to establish itself as an AI leader. After an internal announcement earlier this month, the university on Monday announced that AI microcredentials, which normally each cost around $240 and take four hours to complete, are freely available. The courses were developed in a collaboration between four of UF's colleges to familiarize professionals with AI. Making the credentials available to staff for free can help give context to people in departments like enrollment, fundraising or student life to speak about the institution's AI investments, said Regina Rodriguez, a provost fellow for professional education. "Being able to know that you are knowledgeable about a specific area that university is taking on and building across every single college is so important because then you can come to the table with knowledge or at least understanding the vocabulary and not feel intimidated," she told EdScoop.

The University of Texas at Austin's "Convergent, Responsible, and Ethical AI Training Experience for Roboticists," or CREATE, program launched this year with the goal of informing trainees and graduate students on the privacy and security implications of creating robots that work alongside humans or work in homes. "Given the potentially disruptive consequences of artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems, humanity cannot afford to wait until problems arise to consider their impacts on society," an award abstract read. "AI's ethical and societal implications must be considered as systems are designed, developed, and deployed."