News: 0178319716

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Microsoft Pledges $4 Billion for AI Education Training Programs (geekwire.com)

(Wednesday July 09, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the moving-forward dept.)


Microsoft has [1]pledged more than $4 billion in cash and technology services to train millions of people in AI use, targeting schools, community colleges, technical colleges and nonprofits. The company said it will launch Microsoft Elevate Academy to help 20 million people earn AI certificates.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company would "serve as an advocate to ensure that students in every school across the country have access to A.I. education." The announcement follows Tuesday's news that the American Federation of Teachers [2]received $23 million from Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic for a national AI training center. Last week, dozens of companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI signed a White House pledge promising schools funding, technology and training materials for AI education.



[1] https://www.geekwire.com/2025/as-ai-reshapes-its-workforce-microsoft-commits-4-billion-to-help-others-adapt/

[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/08/1237220/microsoft-openai-and-a-us-teachers-union-are-hatching-a-plan-to-bring-ai-into-the-classroom



Nothing new (Score:4, Informative)

by eneville ( 745111 )

Years back it was MS giving colleges/universities discounts for their Office installs and certifications. Now they want to get (Copilot?) into the captive audience^W^Weducation sector.

Re:General AI not ready (Score:5, Insightful)

by eneville ( 745111 )

How long have people fallen for snake oil?

So nice (Score:5, Interesting)

by pele ( 151312 )

But maybe you should have invested that 4B into basic education like literacy and math. Today kids don't know jack sh*t.

Re: (Score:2)

by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

> But maybe you should have invested that 4B into basic education like literacy and math. Today kids don't know jack sh*t.

They don't want kids to be educated. They want them easily pliable. That's why they're investing in pushing their current hype-tech on them. If they can keep the hype alive through a whole generation, they won't have to make it useful. Enough believers being spit out of the school systems and it'll be a forever tech, whether it's doing anything important or not.

Trusting MS with your valuable info? Are you nuts? (Score:2)

by shanen ( 462549 )

I think this branch should have been FP, but at least the discussion didn't start with obvious AI slop and the AC brain fart appears to have been wafted away...

However I still dislike vacuous Subjects. This transient Subject is based on another book about international cyber-crime, this one focused on politically motivated crimes. The intersections with this story are at two loci.

The first is that I am astonished anyone would entrust any valuable information to any computer system with any flavor of Windows

Drug Pusher Pushes Drugs on Kids (Score:3)

by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

Indoctrination works best if you get started on the young.

So they'll traiin types-question guys, right? (Score:2)

by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 )

[1]https://youtu.be/20TAkcy3aBY?t... [youtu.be]

[1] https://youtu.be/20TAkcy3aBY?t=583

They should be findimg us new jobs (Score:2)

by xack ( 5304745 )

With all Microsoft's layoffs of highly educated people they should be funding AI-proof job creation schemes instead or seize their $4 trillion in stocks for UBI.

People Don't Need Training to Be AI Homeless (Score:2)

by BrendaEM ( 871664 )

The sic "grant" is a political device to hide the fact that severe job losses are underway.

The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with
commoner things. It is chief of the world's luxuries, king by the grace of God
over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the
angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took; we know it because
she repented.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"