California partners with Nvidia to bring artificial intelligence capabilities to colleges

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California partners with tech giant Nvidia to help train the state’s students, college professors, developers and data scientists in artificial intelligence, officials announced Friday.

The initiative is part of an effort to expand resources so that students, educators and workers – especially at community colleges – can learn new skills in Generative AI and advance their careers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said. The partnership aims to add new curricula and certifications, hardware and software, and AI labs and workshops.

“California’s world-leading companies are pioneering advancements in AI, and it is essential that we create more opportunities for Californians to gain the skills they need to utilize this technology and advance their careers,” Newsom said in a statement.

As part of the voluntary agreement with Nvidia, California said it will adopt skills and training for state careers, including new roles for AI specialists in government.

Nvidia has seen growing demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power artificial intelligence or AI applications. The invention of the graphics processor unit, or GPU, by the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker helped fuel the growth of the PC gaming market and redefined computer graphics. Nvidia’s specialized chips are now core components that help leverage different forms of artificial intelligenceincluding the latest generative AI chatbots like Google’s ChatGPT and Gemini.

“We are in the early stages of a new industrial revolution that will transform trillion-dollar industries around the world,” said Nvidia founder Jensen Huang.