Meta and Simplon offer free workshops to learn about AI

The American company Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is launching free training on artificial intelligence in partnership with Simplon, a digital training center.

In the room, around a hundred people, young and old, students, employees or entrepreneurs, listen attentively to the trainer explaining the basics of artificial intelligence. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is organizing these free AI workshops in partnership with the company Simplon. The training lasts half a day and will be held in several cities: Lille, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Rennes, Nantes. The objective is to introduce 30,000 French people to this new tool.

“What is generative AI, this tool which allows you to generate content, text, sound, an image? How does it work? And the third part is also to show its limits on the content that can come out, show that there is bias”explains Laurent Solly, vice-president of Meta for Southern Europe.

The first workshop was held in Marseille, Thursday April 18. Some are already experts. Anthony, 38, works in graphic design and already uses ChatGPT AI, in particular to get rid of menial tasks such as meeting summaries for example. But he wants to learn more. “It’s already been part of my daily life for a very long time and I feel that it’s moving so quickly that I don’t even have time to optimize the tools I use, that there are others coming out, he confides. The goal was to update myself with new means and new tools.”

New job opportunities thanks to AI

“It is both a tool and a formidable assistant in principle, but on the other hand, we must pay attention to the way in which it has been trained and prepared to respond to our requests”, explains Frank, 60 years old. He works in sound and musical creation and artificial intelligence is shaking up his profession. “Some partners ask us to use AI to make music quickly, he says. But in these cases, the question of rights even more arises and we are told that it costs nothing because it is done in three minutes. That poses a real problem.”

Many are aware of the dangers of AI, but also see an opportunity. Hager is 34 years old, she is a former unemployed cashier and she is currently training to be an IT developer: “I wanted to do a career change. I have the motivation to learn, so why not?” She thinks training in AI could help her find work. “Yes, because now, the fields of tech or IT or the web, these are fields of the future”she says.

At the end of this introductory workshop, participants leave with a certificate issued by Simplon, a digital training center partner of Meta. For those who wish to learn about AI for free at home, an online platform has also been launched.