https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ibm-commits-to-training-2-million-in-ai-over-next-3-years-6ce3bd78
7 replies (most recent on top)
"Would anyone go to IBM to be taught about cloud or blockchain or software design or databases or ...?"
With IBM's history ...
You answered your own question there. IBM back in history was worth learning from, but not today, not for at least a decade.
Im in sales in a business unit that has nothing to do with Watsonx and we have mandatory training for it via Your Learning. So…watch a couple videos and pass a 25 question quiz - poof - you’re now an “AI expert” and expected to sell it.
When they say 'training in AI' what they mean is training to be a 'prompt engineer' - ie somebody who types cr-p into IBM's bad ChatGPT knock-ff and pretends they are adding value.
"Would anyone go to IBM to be taught about cloud or blockchain or software design or databases or ...?"
With IBM's history, I would absolutely have no problem going to IBM to learn about that stuff...it's true that they are a sales and marketing company, but they literally wrote the books and own the patents on much of the technology that powers the modern world. Behind all those corporate management problems sits a technology catalog that is unparalleled by any company, even today.
"Maybe they can credibly offer lessons on that but not on technology..."
Whenever you read about luminaries in the IT world, you'll see that they did indeed learn lots of lessons at places like IBM, Xerox, DEC, AT&T and HP. Those names may not be trendy today, but you may rest assured that they have dispensed much wisdom on technology over the years.
I was in the middle of getting trained for Hybrid Cloud. I guess I should abandon all that for learning AI.
International Business Machines Corp. IBM, -0.62% said Monday it is committing to training 2 million people in artificial-intelligence technologies over the next three years, and offering course accreditation for its products.
Not sure who these 2 million people are but guarantee "training" means send them some marketing materials for WatsonX.
If I were a suspicious person, I would wonder how transferable this education is to other AI contexts. There is every possibility that IBM will say "our product X is now AI infused so in order to learn about AI, we'll teach you about our product X." The student will wind up knowing a lot more about the "AI infused" product X than about AI.
We're already seeing the company fall all over itself with its new found watsonx despite the fact that very few people in the company know much about AI. And the watsonx challenge didn't change that. I guess there is a captive audience for 10% of that 2-million.
Would anyone go to IBM to be taught about cloud or blockchain or software design or databases or ...? Why would they go to IBM to be taught about AI? At its heart, IBM is a sales and marketing company. Maybe they can credibly offer lessons on that but not on technology.