California partners with Nvidia to bring artificial intelligence resources to colleges

California is partnering with tech giant Nvidia to help train the state's students, college faculty, developers and data scientists in artificial intelligence, officials announced Friday.

The initiative is part of an effort to expand resources so students, educators and workers—particularly in 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 curriculum and certifications, hardware and software, and AI labs and workshops.

"California's world-leading companies are pioneering AI breakthroughs, and it's essential that we create more opportunities for Californians to get the skills 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 soaring demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power artificial intelligence, or AI applications. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker's invention of the graphics processor unit, or GPU, helped spark the growth of the PC gaming market and redefined computer graphics. Now Nvidia's specialized chips are key components that help power different forms of artificial intelligence, including the latest generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

"We're in the early stages of a new industrial revolution that will transform trillion-dollar industries around the world," said Nvidia's founder, Jensen Huang.

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