CSU unveils massive venture to provide free AI skills and training across all 23 campuses

California State University on Tuesday unveiled what is believed to be among the largest and most ambitious efforts in higher education to champion artificial intelligence with an initiative to provide tools and training in the groundbreaking technology across the system's 23 campuses. With generative AI's ability to create new content learned from training data, CSU is working to ensure students in the nation's largest and most diverse public university system have equitable access to the technology. Nearly half of CSU's 450,000 students are low-income and about 30% are the first in their families to attend college. The university has enlisted Gov. Gavin Newsom's office and nearly a dozen leading tech companies -- including Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Intel, LinkedIn, Amazon Web Services and Alphabet -- to join academics on an advisory board to help identify AI skills needed in the California workforce and provide advice on how best to teach them. Industry partners will also provide internships and apprenticeships to give students real-world experience with AI on the job.