Apart from around 5000 universities offering AI courses/ content, there are estimated to be around 6000 AI Academies around the world offering shorter non degree courses but there is a very wide variation in content, duration and quality of such courses. At present most AI academies end up developing their own individual AI courses, their own use cases and their own resources for their trainees. Hence, there is no consistency in coverage or quality between the courses or AI academies. Because of the pace of AI development, these courses also need to be continuously updated and improved and this too, incurs enormous on going costs for each individual AI academy and an enormous amount of duplicated work as each academy develops its own courses.
Delivery of the SDGs, requires motivation , mobilisation and deployment of an “Army” of AI entrepreneurs to develop suitable products and services to meet the needs of the developing world. This can be done by showing potential trainees the numerous lucrative AI products and services that can now be devised. and developed using no/low code systems and AI agents. WAAA is encouraging governments to implement National AI training programmes using WAAA member AI academies . This increase in trainees will benefit WAAA member academies by increasing their incomes.
Since the needs related to the 17 SDGs are well defined and broadly similar in each country, there is an opportunity to standardise an initial set of courses and resources related to applying AI entrepreneurship to deliver the SDGs. Existing courses and resources can be pooled and a full set of AI courses and resources can be devised centrally under the UN by a task force of relevant UN agencies, Big Tech and academics for distribution to AI academies for use in a Global AI Entrepreneurship Training Initiative (GAETI )
WAAA is being established to enable AI academies from around the world (via their National WAAA branches) to participate in delivery of AI courses specifically targeted at each of the 17 individual SDGs and the 15 -20 groups of society whose needs must be met if we are to deliver the SDGs. Discussions are underway to explore how these courses can best be developed centrally, the role that individual AI academies and leading experts in can play in developing such courses and how National WAAA branches will participate in implementing National AI Training programmes within GAITI. Training millions of AI entrepreneurs will significantly increase the numbers of AI trainees ( and hence incomes ) for WAAA member academies participating in the training