You may know him from his remedy firm Cost Plus Drugs or from beforehand proudly owning the Dallas Mavericks. In any other case you’re sure to know him from his deal-brokering on Shark Tank.
However for a lot of college students, Mark Cuban is the explanation why they’re capable of find out about arguably one of the crucial essential rising expertise proper now: AI.
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This 12 months, in additional than 18 cities throughout the nation, highschool college students will have the ability to study the most recent developments of AI, together with ChatGPT, fully at no cost by the Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps Initiative.
“There are two types of companies in the world right now—those that understand AI and those who don’t,” Cuban tells Fortune in an e-mail.
“I want to see more kids ready and excited to learn more about AI and be part of the way it is changing society. By democratizing AI education, we empower these kids to shape their futures and contribute meaningfully to the digital economy.”
Bringing free AI training nationwide
Based in 2019, hundreds of scholars have AI coaching in topics like machine learning, pure language processing, and AI ethics.
The necessities to use for 2024’s bootcamps are easy. In truth, no coding or tech information is required. College students simply have to be in ninth–twelfth grade subsequent faculty 12 months and residing inside driving distance of one of many camps. The places embody:
- California: Pasadena; Mountain View
- Florida: Fort Lauderdale; Miami; Palm Seaside Gardens
- Georgia: Atlanta
- Illinois: Chicago
- Indiana: Indianapolis
- Michigan: Detroit; Pontiac
- Minnesota: Minneapolis
- Missouri: St. Louis
- Nebraska: Omaha
- Pennsylvania: Philadelphia
- Texas: Addison; Houston; Plano
- Washington D.C.
For 2024, every bootcamp will happen over three Saturdays on November 2, 9, and 16 and can host 20 to 25 college students. The academics include volunteers from native companies and companies. Beforehand, AI specialists from Walmart and McDonald’s have been amongst them.
“It’s not so much that we’re addressing gaps in the education world, but we recognize that teaching kids about cutting-edge technologies is not the strength of most public schools. We’re removing as many barriers as possible to give our students a hands-on way to learn about AI and actually get to use the technology to build applications that solve problems in their daily lives,” Cuban says.
Many universities have taken comparable approaches to instructing in regards to the quickly rising area of AI. Colleges like Columbia, Caltech, and the College of Houston provide AI bootcamps. And even corporations like Google and IBM have methods to study AI topics, prompt engineering for instance, on-line. However, many choices vary by way of worth and are largely fully digital.
Cuban’s emphasis on training
This isn’t Cuban’s first foray into the training area. For years, he has been vocal about making faculty extra reasonably priced and easing the burden it locations on college students—particularly on the subject of scholar mortgage debt.
In 2014, he launched a U.S. student loan debt clock (it at the moment reads at over $2.1 trillion—which exceeds bank card and auto mortgage debt, mixed). Extra just lately, he expressed his support for President Joe Biden’s preliminary proposal to forgive $10,000 in scholar mortgage debt per borrower.
However above all, Cuban has famous that having liberal arts education—and making use of it to the world of tech—will be extraordinarily useful.
“AI needs to be taught about the world as it happens and given different perspectives about the output of models. So try to find ways to apply your liberal arts education to AI, and I think you will be more valued than people expect,” he notes.
AI is broadly anticipated to remodel the character of the workforce within the coming years, with some jobs seemingly to get replaced and lots of extra complemented by the brand new expertise. In accordance with the IMF, about 60% of jobs in superior economics could also be impacted by AI.
Cuban’s bootcamp hopes to play a component in getting ready college students for college and jobs of the longer term.
“I hope students will use their newfound skills to innovate, create, and ultimately disrupt industries,” Cuban says. “The goal is for them to apply what they’ve learned to build successful businesses and solve problems in their communities. And we hope the camp will be just the start of their AI journey and they’ll continue to learn.”
