Big Tech makes California state its AI training ground

ON THE FIRST day of AI Camp, a new summer programme at California State University (Cal State), Savannah Bosley got a hands-on introduction to Amazon Bedrock, a system for building artificial intelligence apps.

- NATASHA SINGER

“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to put it on the résumé, to learn a new tool that’s maybe marketable,” said Ms. Bosley, a computer science major who graduated this year from California Polytechnic State University, a Cal State campus in San Luis Obispo.

Dozens of students attended the five-day programme, which was held on the Cal Poly campus and “powered by” Amazon Web Services, the e-commerce giant’s cloud computing division. Students scooped up free swag like Amazon-branded pens and notebooks. They tackled assignments on AWS Jam, a training app where students can practice AI skills. They listened as Amazon employees extolled company principles like “Think Big.”