Google AI Essentials
Enrolments in this Coursera course are free until the end of September 2025.
This 4-hour beginners’ session explores how AI works through foundational concepts such as machine learning (ML). Learn about the rise of generative AI and how to perform tasks with it and gain an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these tools and how to use them in the workplace.
This course was written by Google, hosted by Coursera, and managed by Literacy Waitakere.
Enrol by the end of September 2025 using your @auckland.ac.nz email address to enjoy free access. Access will not be revoked beyond September.
Image credit: Brian Penny from Pixabay
A note about data privacy
Free access to this course has been negotiated by Literacy Waitakere—a not-for-profit adult education organisation based in West Auckland—who are working on a Google.org-funded AI training project.
Google has granted Literacy Waitakere admin access to manage scholarships for this Coursera course, limited to just two administrators: the CEO and the project coordinator, Dr Kara Kennedy.
When you enrol:
- Your name, email address and course completion status will be shared with Literacy Waitakere. This is solely to provide support, send reminder messages, and to report usage statistics to Google.
- Literacy Waitakere respects data privacy and does not use or share data outside the Coursera platform. Their admin access will be removed when the scholarship programme ends in October.
- Users can choose to use an alias if they prefer more anonymity, although the name they choose will appear on any certificate of completion.
- Kara Kennedy from the AI Literacy Institute also confirms that this data use is limited to course administration and learner support and is not shared beyond that scope.