Free AI training at colleges, but at what cost?

As artificial intelligence replaces entry-level jobs, California’s universities and community colleges are offering a glimmer of hope for students: free AI training that will help them master the new technology.

- By ADAM ECHELMAN

ANNA CONNORS San Francisco Chronicle GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM announces new AI partnerships last month at Google's office in San Francisco.

“You're seeing in certain coding spaces significant declines in hiring for obvious reasons,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in early August from the seventh floor of Google’s San Francisco office.

Flanked by leadership from California’s higher education systems, he called attention to the recent layoffs at Microsoft, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and at nearby Salesforce Tower, home to the tech company that is still the city’s largest private employer.

Now, some of those companies — including Google and Microsoft — will offer a suite of AI resources free to California schools and universities. In return, the companies could gain access to millions of new users.

The state’s community colleges and California State University campuses are “the backbone of our workforce and economic development,” Newsom said, just before education leaders and tech executives signed agreements on AI.

The new deals are the latest developments in a frenzy that began in November 2022, when OpenAI publicly released the free artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, forcing schools to adapt.

San Diego Unified teachers started using AI software that suggested what grades to give students, CalMatters reported. Some of the district’s board members were unaware that the district had purchased the software.

In July, the company that oversees Canvas, a learning management system popular in California schools and universities, said it would add “interactive conversations in a ChatGPT-like environment” into its software.