Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- According to Reuters, on Wednesday, local time, theGoogleannounced that it will invest $1 billion (note: current exchange rate is approximately RMB 7.186 billion) over the next three years to provide U.S. colleges and nonprofit organizations with AI trainingand related tools.
there are alreadyOver 100UniversityParticipating in this program are the nation's largest public university systems, including Texas A&M University and the University of North Carolina.
Participating institutions have access to financial support and technical resources such asCloud credits for AI training courses, or services to support AI-related research.
The $1 billion investment also includes the value of certain paid AI tools. For example, Google will open up access to an advanced version of Gemini to college students for free.
In an interview, Google senior vice president James Manica said the company plans to extend the program to all accredited nonprofit colleges and universities across the U.S. and has already begun toNegotiating similar cooperation with other countries.
In the context of OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon and other competitors have introduced AI into the education scene, Google's move is also seen as a trend. Last month, Microsoft announced that it would spend $4 billion (28.744 billion yuan at the current exchange rate) to promote the development of AI in the global education sector.
However, there are widespread academic and societal concerns about AI in education, such asMay promote cheating and may weaken critical thinking skillsAs a result, some schools are beginning to consider limiting the use of AI tools.
Manika said that since Google started this education program at the beginning of the year, it has not yet encountered opposition from school administrations, but questions about the impact of AI still abound. "We want to explore with these institutions to find the most appropriate use of these tools."
He also added that this will help Google further optimize the future direction of the product.