Top 10 Popular Online Courses to Master Generative AI

Discover the top online courses for mastering Generative AI, including ChatGPT, GANs, and Python-based programs. Ideal for various professional backgrounds, these courses offer comprehensive learning in AI applications, ethical practices, and prompt engineering.

Generative AI is all the rage, making innovation faster through programmes, such as ChatGPT, using deep learning and algorithms. Almost every industry - from marketing to education and policymaking - is affected by it today, while some have gone through major disruptions.

Since it is fast-evolving, companies plan to invest more in its capabilities, navigating and anticipating the ethical risks, according to McKinsey & Co. Expect conversational AI assistants across 40% of enterprise applications (AIM research) and high demand in prompt engineering (Forbes) this year alone. 

While possibilities are only multiplying in this domain, you may want to get into it or have an inkling to go deeper into cloud computing or large language models. There are all sorts of Generative AI courses online. And we have listed below the top ones for that.  

1. Introduction to Generative AI from Google Cloud 

If you are a complete beginner to AI/ML concepts and want a quick understanding of the basics, take this micro-learning course of 40+ minutes. Ideal for those in marketing, sales, operations, or other non-technical roles, this free course will help you learn the basics of the available possibilities.

The best is, after this course, there is a dedicated learning path for the non-technical pros. These lengthier courses give you access to Generative AI Studio and Vertex AI, the ML platform of Google Cloud. 

So, here is the learning path, once you complete this course. 

• Introduction to Large Language Models
• Introduction to Responsible AI 
• Generative AI Fundamentals
• Responsible AI: Applying AI Principles with Google Cloud

How this learning path can help you in real-world scenarios?

• Understanding the basics of Generative AI can lead to skills in developing innovative AI applications, such as content creation, data synthesis, and more.
• Knowledge of LLMs can be applied in fields like natural language processing, chatbot development, and automated content generation.
• Understanding responsible AI is crucial for ethically developing and deploying AI systems, ensuring they are fair, transparent, and beneficial.
• Applying ethical principles in real-world AI projects, ensuring responsible and sustainable AI development.

2. Generative AI For Everyone from DeepLearning.AI on Coursera

DeepLearning.AI founded by the well-known Andrew Ng, offers this introductory-level course, offering a 360-degree view of what generative AI is, how it works, its common use cases, the lifecycle of a generative AI project, effective prompt building, and the potential opportunities and risks of generative AI technologies.

This is one of the best generative AI courses out there for beginners. 

How will it help your career?

• Gain a foundational understanding of generative AI, including its capabilities and limitations, which is essential for anyone looking to explore or work in this field.
• Gain insights into the potential opportunities and risks that generative AI technologies present, which is important for policymakers, business leaders, and technologists.
• The course is suitable for a wide range of professionals, including those in non-technical roles, who wish to understand and leverage AI in their work.

3. Generative AI, from GANs to CLIP, with Python and Pytorch on Udemy

With over 25K students enrolled so far, this course of 10+ hours is quite helpful for developers looking to improve their technical aspects of GenAI. It covers basic to advanced topics on GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) and multimodal AI. 

How will it benefit your tech career?

• Gain in-depth knowledge of how generative AI architectures work.
• Learn to code generative AI architectures from scratch, which has become necessary for developers and data scientists. 
• Python and Pytorch proficiency is highly sought after in the tech industry, particularly in roles involving machine learning and AI. 

4. Generative AI: Prompt Engineering Basics from IBM on Coursera

Guiding generative models to do what you want requires expertise, making this one of the top Gen AI courses that is quite valuable to professionals in literally any industry and position. The major benefit is you learn different types of prompting techniques and get introduced to IBM’s watsonx Prompt Lab to use in a sandboxed project and other tools, including Spellbook (used for contracts). 

For hands-on learning, the course comes with graded assignments. And the final module is a graded project. 

How will it help you prompt better?

• The course teaches best practices for creating impactful prompts, a skill crucial for anyone working with language models like ChatGPT.
• Learning common prompt engineering techniques and approaches, such as zero-shot and few-shot learning, enhances your ability to interact with and control large language models.
• Understanding prompt engineering opens up creative possibilities for using AI in new and innovative ways, particularly in fields like content creation, customer service, and AI-driven analytics.

5. Generative AI for Leaders from Vanderbilt University on Coursera

Ideal for top-level management decision-makers, this course helps learners develop the right strategy by leveraging GenAI for their organisations. This course delves into areas of how the business environment is now largely dominated by an AI-driven landscape, demanding a shift from the old leadership styles.  

How will it transform your leadership role?

• It provides essential knowledge for strategic decision-making, team management, and identifying new business opportunities in the realm of AI.
• Leaders can identify new business opportunities and areas for improvement within their organisations using generative AI technologies.

6. Generative AI: Foundation Models and Platforms by IBM on Coursera

If you want to explore pre-trained models' capabilities, this course can help you fine-tune or customise them for specific tasks or datasets. All this will be taught inside IBM’s generative AI classroom.  

How will it help your career?

• Learning about different generative AI platforms like IBM watsonx and Hugging Face can help choose the right tools for AI application development.
• It is a great way to specialise in the GenAI field as you will learn the core models, including IBM Granite, OpenAI GPT, Google flan, and Meta Llama.

7. Generative AI in Higher Education on FutureLearn

Offered by King’s College London, this course is designed to explore the impact of generative AI in the educational sector. 

Using this technology is also becoming a huge debate, especially, when it comes to academics. But this course provides a holistic view of the impact it has when students can navigate their way in the demanding job market, which policymakers and educators need to consider today and in the near future. 

How will it help in your academic or administrative career?

• This course prepares educators and administrators to adapt to the evolving landscape of higher education influenced by AI technologies.
• Policymakers can use the insights gained from this course to develop strategies and policies that harness the benefits of AI in education while addressing its challenges.
• Understanding the influence of AI on the job market can help guide students and shape curricula to meet future skill requirements.

8. Generative AI: Implications and Opportunities for Business on FutureLearn

If you are still at the beginning stage of utilising ChatGPT for your full-fledged or side business, take this useful course. See how you can master business operations, and learn the ways you can be innovative in front of your customers. 

How will it help your business grow?

• You will learn to employ prompt engineering techniques to create and optimise prompts for generative AI models.
• Learning about the business models of generative AI application will help you understand how it is used in different contexts. Overall, it will be aiding in strategic decision-making.

9. Generative AI - From Big Picture, to Idea, to Implementation on Udemy

Good if you have some coding training or consider yourself tech-savvy because this course is an all-rounder. The course covers the implementation of Generative AI models, a broad spectrum of applications, and ideation and augmenting datasets. 

How will it help you in your techpreneur journey?

• Learn how to implement Generative AI models, focusing on concept implementation and relevant coding. 
• The course provides insights into various applications of GAI, such as 3D object generation and text-to-image translation, beneficial for professionals in creative industries, marketing, and product development.

10. Getting Started with Generative AI APIs by Codio on Coursera

This course introduces you to the basics of using generative AI APIs. It particularly focuses on OpenAI's GPT API. If you are a new coder, you must get used to Codio. But once you get a hang of it, you will be able to create new applications or services using generative AI technologies.

How will it benefit your coding career?

• Gaining skills in Python with this course can enhance your resume for roles in AI development, data science, and software engineering.
• It offers practical experience and foundational knowledge in AI application development when you are tasked to build a movie recommendation system.

Parting Thoughts

There you go. These are some of the top courses to help you gain some solid footing on Generative AI.