California State University (CSU) is using a public-private initiative to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) tools and trainings to a total of 523,000 people including 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff.
CSU, the country’s largest four-year public university system, is working with tech companies – including Adobe, Alphabet (Google), AWS, IBM, Instructure, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI – and Gov. Gavin Newsom office to leverage AI for its student body, faculty, and staff.
“We are proud to announce this innovative, highly collaborative public-private initiative that will position the CSU as a global leader among higher education systems in the impactful, responsible and equitable adoption of artificial intelligence,” said CSU Chancellor Mildred García. “The comprehensive strategy will elevate our students’ educational experience across all fields of study, empower our faculty’s teaching and research, and help provide the highly educated workforce that will drive California’s future AI-driven economy.”
As part of the partnership, AI trainings, learning, and teaching tools including ChatGPT will be available across all 23 CSU universities. CSU said this will ensure that all students, faculty, and staff have “equitable access to cutting-edge tools that will prepare them to meet the rapidly changing education and workforce needs of California.”
CSU said it expects to make these tools available within the next few weeks.
The university highlighted its plans to work with OpenAI to deploy ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT offering advanced tools, security, and controls for educational institutions. The equitable use of ChatGPT Edu across the university’s 23 campuses will help students, faculty, and staff to use AI to accelerate learning, optimize workflow efficiency, and foster cross-departmental collaboration.
“The latest AI technologies can be used in many contexts, from academia to the workforce, and we are excited to work with industry leaders to help the CSU build on our success in an AI-driven economy,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s chief information officer. “At the CSU, we have two imperatives: to equip our students with the skills to leverage these powerful tools, and to transform our own institutional practices through AI to better serve the largest public university system in the nation.”
