Apple Developer Academy now includes AI training for students and alumni

Apple announced today that its Developer Academy will now include comprehensive training on AI for all students and mentors. The initiative extends to alumni as well, providing them with an opportunity to enhance their skills in AI technologies. Starting this fall, the new core curriculum will benefit thousands of students and alumni across 18 Developer Academies in Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the United States.

By integrating AI as a foundational skill, the academy aims to equip students with essential competencies in coding, professional skills, design, and marketing. Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, highlighted the importance of this initiative: “At Apple, we see coding as a universal language and believe in empowering developers, creators, and entrepreneurs across the world with tools and technologies that will allow them to create phenomenal experiences. With the introduction of curriculum dedicated to AI and other new technologies, we’re excited to see what students will build to share with their communities and the world.”

The AI-focused curriculum will cover essential topics such as building, training, and deploying machine learning models across Apple devices. Students will gain hands-on experience with AI technologies and frameworks, including Core ML, which enables fast performance on Apple devices. The program includes guided curriculum and project-based assignments, supported by hundreds of mentors and more than 12,000 alumni worldwide.

In conjunction with the new AI curriculum, Apple announced several new technologies and APIs at WWDC24 that will further enhance the learning experience for students. These include Xcode 16, which sets a new standard for developer productivity, and Swift Assist, a tool designed to aid developers in exploring new frameworks and experimenting with innovative ideas. Additionally, Swift 6 introduces new capabilities aimed at enhancing code clarity and making concurrent programming more accessible.