🌟 Introducing Udemy's GenAI Program 🌟

Chrystie
Chrystie Posts: 536 traveler rank
edited July 25 in Community News

Hey there, instructors!

We're excited to announce the launch of Udemy's GenAI Program, designed to enhance your teaching experience and increase your course visibility through the power of artificial intelligence. Starting August 14, 2024, our comprehensive GenAI policy will be available in all languages, detailing how you can benefit from these innovative tools.

In this Teaching Center article, we outline the key points of the program, including the opt-in/opt-out process and how your content will be used. 

We understand you may have questions about the program. To assist you, we've created these FAQs to address the most common inquiries. We encourage you to review the FAQs, and if you have additional questions that are not covered, please leave them in the comments below. We will continuously update the FAQs article to address your questions.

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Comments

  • SAPBuddy
    SAPBuddy Posts: 209 specialist rank

    Great initiative, i don’t opt-out 😊

  • Veasna, M.
    Veasna, M. Posts: 179 storyteller rank
    edited July 26

    I like the new updates. Thank for making us more accessible to new tech.

  • ThomasMitchell
    ThomasMitchell Posts: 463 visionary rank

    @Chrystie … I have yet to see a definitive confirmation anywhere that Udemy will not be using our content to build AI-generated courses that will compete with instructors.

    So, I’ll ask here: Does Udemy have any near or long term plans to use our course content to build AI-generated courses that will compete in any way with instructors??

    Tagging @GenefaMurph976 as well.

  • Chrystie
    Chrystie Posts: 536 traveler rank

    @ThomasMitchell We hear and understand your concern. Udemy's strongest differentiation from competitors is its instructor-creator model and the freshness of the content, and we have no intention of breaking that model. We remain committed to the GenAI principles we shared to ensure that when Udemy wins, Instructors win. 

    I encourage you to join the Udemy GenAI Product Preview happening on August 7th, to get a first look at the tools Udemy is building on more information on our policies.


  • ThomasMitchell
    ThomasMitchell Posts: 463 visionary rank

    That’s not a yes or no. With all due respect, when I ask someone a yes or no question and don’t get a yes or no answer, red flags go up.

  • Chrystie
    Chrystie Posts: 536 traveler rank

    @ThomasMitchell

    I’m sure you’re aware of some of the challenging PR situations other companies have faced when releasing their GenAI policies. At Udemy, we are committed to doing this the right way. This is why our team is meticulously taking the time to ensure that the policies and tools we develop are thoughtful, effective, and have learners, organizations & instructors' best interests in mind.

    Over the course of the next month we will be unveiling all during a series of events, emails & teaching center articles. Until then we ask for your patience.

    Here is what you can expect over the next month:

    We’re excited about the upcoming Product Preview on August 7th, which will be one of the first opportunities for instructors to see our new products and hear directly from Udemy leadership about our policies.

  • CarlosDeLeon
    CarlosDeLeon Posts: 896 visionary rank

    It looks like it is not possible (at least for me) to respond to individual comments here in the new platform…

    @ThomasMitchell I had this question too, but I can now see the answer in the GenAI FAQs:

    However, the following part still makes me think there will be some obscure ways in which our content is planned to be used:

    "In situations where the benefit of using instructor content in our new AI features may not be sufficiently captured by our existing consumption-based pool allocation model, we’re developing ways to recognize the following:

    • When your content is used by our AI tools
    • Any AI assistant interactions within your courses".

  • Imran Zakir
    Imran Zakir Posts: 14 traveler rank
    edited July 31

    Appreciate this initiative.👍️.

  • Thor
    Thor Posts: 2,331 rolemodel rank

    @ThomasMitchell After asking the same question many times, this is what I got told.

    1. No, Udemy does not plan to directly compete with instructors on videos/questions courses. They are very clear on the major Udemy's differentiator vs any of their competitors is the instructor base. Udemy GenAI made courses would be short term gains but they know long-term it would mean the death of the platform.
    2. They 'may' make labs if no good instructor ones are available, uncertain if that was using instructor courses, but if it is there would be compensation.
    3. Courses (If opted in) will be used in site-level chatbot, course level chatbot, and to build skill paths, they are still mapping out how we get compensated for it.

    (previous answers were "no current plans" "we don't have the technology")

    There is also the question of 2 instructors, A and B, IF A is opted in and B is opted out, presumably B would get more minutes watched, because students who need to review would watch videos, A's students would use chatbot, which is less time, but I honestly think opting out will hurt you more when students start to expect to have the GenAI tools for all courses.

  • I don't really know what to think, we are demanding even more quality from instructors when 70% of it is obtained by Udemy, to top it off, we want to prevent users or clients from searching and browsing on their own to use an AI where many courses will be excluded! I don't know what to think, after reading all the information from the AI ​​it shows as an exclusion where everyone must say YES because the information really isn't very clear or detailed, did we really need this to prevent students from searching? -- by logical deduction, the person who enters Udemy does so because they know what they are going to buy or because they received a publication, I feel like they are burning out instructors and for the percentage of profit that the instructors get I feel like this is going to be the worst.

    I wonder when the prices for the courses will go up -- you can't confuse quality with economy --, it seems like a war of the "lowest" prices, there are old courses that nobody deletes, they can't be reported -- even instructors who have died -- and that also affects the platform but nobody has thought about this either.

    I don't see this in a good light, too much publicity for an assistant where the courses that most benefit the platform will be recommended perhaps -- without employees there are no bosses and I fear that the instructors will end up leaving.

  • will it be recorded? (It’s 3am for me)

  • SilWright
    SilWright Posts: 106 storyteller rank

    Hi

    Thereis no mention of the August 7th Zoom event being recorded and available for later viewing. I ask because it is scheduled for 1am my time.

  • We have a recording for this event?

  • MarinaT
    MarinaT Posts: 2,148 Udemy rank

    Hi @VanessaCoul532,

    We hope to be able to share the recording of the preview tomorrow or early next week!
    I will keep you posted!

    CC: @SilWright @CristianVlad

  • MarinaT
    MarinaT Posts: 2,148 Udemy rank

    Hi everyone

    I just wanted to inform you that you can access the recording of our latest GenAI webinar and product preview here.

    CC: @VanessaCoul532, @SilWright, @CristianVlad

  • A useful initiative🤩

  • LizBrownUX
    LizBrownUX Posts: 97 specialist rank
    edited August 15

    @Chrystie
    Question:
    I read the FAQs, but this subject is not clear to me: "Is the AI Assistant only for the UB courses, or will it suggest courses outside UB as well? The AI Assistant will be available in all English language Udemy Business courses of instructors included in our GenAI program."

    - So if you have a course (or all of your courses) only on marketplace, not UB, then all of this GenAI talk is N/A to you?

    - If your course is not in UB, you will not see any of these GenAI features available for your course (the chatbot in your course, the Q&A board thing to help answer student Qs, etc.) Only UB courses will have the GenAI features applied to them?

    - As a marketplace student (since we instructors are often students as well), we will not see any of these GenAI features from the student's side (e.g. chatbot in the course)? Because the only time a student will see or be able to use any of these GenAI features is if they do so through their employer's Udemy for Business plan?

    Thank you,
    Liz

  • MarinaT
    MarinaT Posts: 2,148 Udemy rank

    Hi @LizBrownUX,

    Thank you for your great questions! The AI Assistant and other GenAI features will be available exclusively to Udemy Business students and admins for courses within our Udemy Business collection. These features will only be accessible if instructors choose to opt in.

    That being said, if your courses are exclusively on the marketplace, features like the AI Assistant and AI-powered learning patterns will not be available to your courses or learners. However, if you do not wish to grant Udemy the right and license to use your Submitted Content, you must opt-out.

    I'm also linking here our latest post for visibility.