Microsoft Invests $4 Billion in AI Education Initiative

Microsoft pushes billions at AI education for the masses

After committing more than $13 billion in strategic investments to OpenAI, Microsoft is splashing out billions more to get people using the technology. On Wednesday, Redmond announced a $4 billion donation of cash and technology to schools and non-profits over the next five years. It's branding this philanthropic mission as Microsoft Elevate, which is billed as "providing people and organizations with AI skills and tools to thrive in an AI-powered economy." It will also start the AI Economy Institute (AIEI), a so-called corporate think tank stocked with academics that will be publishing research on how the workforce needs to adapt to AI tech. The bulk of the money will go toward AI and cloud credits for K-12 schools and community colleges, and Redmond claims 20 million people will "earn an in-demand AI skilling credential" under the scheme, although Microsoft's record on such vendor-backed certifications is hardly spotless. "Working in close coordination with other groups across Microsoft, including LinkedIn and GitHub, Microsoft Elevate will deliver AI education and skilling at scale," said Brad Smith, president and vice chair of Microsoft Corporation, in a blog post. "And it will work as an advocate for public policies around the world to advance AI education and training for others." It's not an entirely new scheme - Redmond already had its Microsoft Philanthropies and Tech for Social Impact charitable organizations, but they are now merging into Elevate. Smith noted Microsoft has already teamed up with North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany to train students on AI, and says similar partnerships across the US education system will follow. Microsoft is also looking to recruit teachers to the cause. On Tuesday, Microsoft, along with Anthropic and OpenAI, said it was starting the National Academy for AI Instruction with the American Federation of Teachers to train teachers in AI skills and to pass them on to the next generation. The scheme has received $23 million in funding from the tech giants spread over five years, and aims to train 400,000 teachers at training centers across the US and online. "AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges -- and it's our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around," said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a canned statement. "The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver's seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced." Meanwhile, the AIEI will sponsor and convene researchers to produce publications, including policy briefs and research reports, on applying AI skills in the workforce, leveraging a global network of academic partners. Hopefully they can do a better job of it than Redmond's own staff. After 9,000 layoffs from Microsoft earlier this month, largely in the Xbox division, Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, went viral with a spectacularly tone-deaf LinkedIn post (now removed) to former staff members offering AI prompts "to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss." ®

As AI reshapes its workforce, Microsoft commits $4 billion to help others adapt

Microsoft is making a $4 billion, five-year commitment to support schools and nonprofits with AI tools and training through a new initiative called Microsoft Elevate, even as its own workforce grapples with the impact of artificial intelligence and the company's efficiency-driven cutbacks. The announcement Wednesday morning, during a special event at Seattle's Museum of History & Industry, underscores the tech giant's dual role as both a leading force in AI development and a company navigating the disruptive consequences of the technology it's creating. "The goal isn't to build machines that replace us -- it's to build machines that help us do more and do it better," said Microsoft President Brad Smith in a post announcing the initiative. The announcement comes a week after Microsoft confirmed it would cut another 4% of its workforce -- about 9,000 jobs globally -- as part of a broader efficiency push. Since mid-May, the company has cut about 15,000 jobs worldwide, including over 3,100 in Washington state. Microsoft hasn't specifically connected the layoffs to AI, but they come as artificial intelligence reshapes roles across engineering, sales and product teams, and as the company ramps up spending on cloud and AI infrastructure -- a record $80 billion in the last fiscal year. Microsoft Elevate will consolidate the company's technology support, donations, and sales for K-12 schools, community colleges, technical colleges and nonprofits under one umbrella. The company says the $4 billion commitment includes both cash and donations of cloud and AI technology, distributed globally over five years. The initiative expands on the company's prior philanthropic work, including its Tech for Social Impact program, with a commitment to reinvest a portion of its profits into nonprofit programs. As part of the program, Microsoft plans to launch the Elevate Academy, which aims to help 20 million people worldwide earn credentials in AI over the next two years in partnership with LinkedIn, GitHub, and other internal teams. Microsoft says the education and credential programs will range from basic fluency to advanced technical training. Microsoft's Naria Santa Lucia said the Elevate Academy will partner with major education organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association to provide AI training. The company also announced its new AI Economy Institute, a think tank launched in January to study how AI is reshaping work, education and productivity around the world. Microsoft says Elevate will support public policies that promote AI education and workforce development, and deepen partnerships with governments, unions, and education providers.

Microsoft pledges $4 billion toward AI education - The Economic Times

Microsoft has pledged over $4 billion in cash and services to train 20 million people in AI skills, focusing on schools, colleges, and nonprofits. It launched the Microsoft Elevate Academy and backed Code.org's "Hour of AI" as part of wider efforts to accelerate AI education and workforce readiness globally.Microsoft said Wednesday that it planned to give more than $4 billion in cash and technology services to train millions of people to use artificial intelligence, amid an intensifying Silicon Valley crusade to embed chatbots into classrooms. Microsoft, the maker of the Copilot chatbot, said the resources would go to schools, community colleges, technical colleges and nonprofits. The company is also starting a new training program, Microsoft Elevate Academy, to "deliver AI education and skilling at scale" and help 20 million people earn certificates in AI. "Microsoft will serve as an advocate to ensure that students in every school across the country have access to AI education," Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said in an interview Sunday. Microsoft did not immediately specify how much of the more than $4 billion the company planned to dispense as grants and how much of it would be in the form of Microsoft AI services and cloud computing credits. The announcement comes as tech companies are racing to train millions of teachers and students on their new AI tools. Even so, researchers say it is too soon to tell whether the classroom chatbots will end up improving educational outcomes or eroding important skills like critical thinking. On Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing 1.8 million members, said it was setting up a national AI training center for educators, with $23 million in funding from Microsoft and two other chatbot makers, OpenAI and Anthropic. Last week, several dozen companies -- including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI -- signed a White House pledge promising to provide schools with funding, technology and training materials for AI education. In 2023, Amazon announced a new company program, "AI Ready," to provide free online Amazon AI skills courses for 2 million people. Before Microsoft's new AI training campaign, the tech giant worked for more than a decade to boost computer science education in schools, including lobbying for new state education laws. Microsoft also funded nonprofit education groups like Code.org; its "Hour of Code" lessons have been used by tens of millions of schoolchildren around the world. Now that AI tools can generate computer code, tech companies that were once big coding boosters are pivoting to chatbots. As part of Microsoft's announcement Wednesday, the company said it was backing a new Code.org program called "Hour of AI." "Coding changed the work of software developers, but it didn't change every occupation and profession, or the work of every professional, the way AI probably will," Smith said. "So we need to move faster for AI than we did for computer science."