At Google’s San Francisco offices on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a joint effort with four top tech companies to better prepare California’s students for the future of work.
At a time when hundreds of thousands of tech workers are losing their jobs to layoffs, California is teaming up with Microsoft, Google, IBM and Adobe to help students and teachers get up to speed on generative AI.
“The world in many ways is now competing against us, and we’ve got to step up our game,” Newsom said.
The agreements will bring the companies’ free AI training — along with software, certification programs and internship opportunities — into California’s high schools, community colleges and California State University campuses.
The companies already offer an array of educational services nationwide, free of charge. IBM offers IBM SkillsBuild globally and nationwide. Google recently announced $1 billion in funding over three years for U.S. education, including AI literacy programs, research funding and cloud computing resources.
Its AI for Education Accelerator promises free AI training and Google Career Certificates to every college student in America.
“Over 100 public universities, including the University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, the University of Virginia and the University Systems in Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have already signed up,” a spokesperson wrote KQED.
What distinguishes the memorandum of understanding Newsom announced is unclear. The California State University System and the California Community College systems are already involved with the Google accelerator.
It’s also unclear how many people benefiting most from the generative AI boom are homegrown Californians or imported from elsewhere.
Newsom frequently notes that the San Francisco Bay Area leads the world in both the number of AI companies and AI jobs by nearly all available measures. He has created a working group to advise state leaders on how to address the ramifications for the state’s government, economy and education system.
“AI is reshaping the future of work, revolutionizing industries, transforming government services and creating entirely new career paths,” said Matthew Schneider, who heads the Education, State & Local Government division for Google Public Sector.
That’s already proving true, as is the corollary that generative AI is rapidly eliminating old career paths in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Newsom said he recognizes the nature of work is “radically changing,” as is the value of university degrees in the modern workplace. He suggested that credentials issued by private companies, along with practical experience such as internships, could become more important.
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