California Colleges Adopt Free AI Training: Hope or Hazard?

Published Date : 12/08/2025 

California's universities and community colleges are offering free AI training to students, preparing them for a tech-driven future. However, the initiative raises questions about the true cost and impact on education. 

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the job market, California’s universities and community colleges are stepping up to offer a glimmer of hope: free AI training that will equip students with the skills to master new technologies.

“You’re seeing in certain coding spaces significant declines in hiring for obvious reasons,” Governor Gavin Newsom said during a press conference from the seventh floor of Google’s San Francisco office. He highlighted the recent layoffs at tech giants like Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Salesforce, which remains the city’s largest private employer.

In response, companies such as Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM are providing a suite of AI resources for free to California’s educational institutions. This move is expected to benefit the state’s community colleges and California State University (CSU) campuses, which are crucial for workforce and economic development. However, it also raises concerns about the potential for these tech companies to gain access to millions of new users.

The state’s community colleges and CSU campuses are “the backbone of our workforce and economic development,” Newsom emphasized, just before education leaders and tech executives signed agreements on AI. These deals are part of a broader trend that began in November 2022, when OpenAI publicly released the free AI tool ChatGPT, forcing schools to adapt.

The Los Angeles Unified School District implemented an AI chatbot last year, only to cancel it three months later without disclosing the reasons. In San Diego Unified, teachers started using AI software to suggest grades for students, a practice that some board members were unaware of. Last month, the company behind the popular learning management system Canvas announced it would integrate a ChatGPT-like environment into its software.

To combat potential AI-related cheating, many K-12 and college districts are using a new feature from the software company Turnitin to detect plagiarism. However, a CalMatters investigation found that the software often accused students who did real work of using AI.

These deals are sending mixed signals, said Stephanie Goldman, the executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. “Districts were already spending lots of money on AI detection software. What do you do when it’s built into the software they’re using?”

Don Daves-Rougeaux, a senior adviser for the community college system, acknowledged the potential contradiction but emphasized the need to keep up with the rapid pace of changes in AI. The community college system will frequently reevaluate the use of Turnitin along with all other AI tools.

California’s community college system is responsible for the bulk of job training in the state, though it receives the least funding from the state per student. “Oftentimes when we are having these conversations, we are looked at as a smaller system,” said Daves-Rougeaux. The state’s 116 community colleges collectively educate roughly 2.1 million students.

In the deals announced Thursday, the community college system will partner with Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM to roll out additional AI training for teachers. Daves-Rougeaux said the system has also signed deals that will allow students to use exclusive versions of Google’s counterpart to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI research tool, Notebook LLM. These tools are expected to save community colleges “hundreds of millions of dollars,” though an exact figure was not provided.

“It’s a tough situation for faculty,” said Goldman. “AI is super important but it has come up time and time again: How do you use AI in the classroom while still ensuring that students, who are still developing critical thinking skills, aren’t just using it as a crutch?”

One concern is that faculty could lose control over how AI is used in their classrooms. The K-12 system and CSU system are forming their own tech deals. Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for the CSU system, said it is working on its own AI programs with Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Intel, LinkedIn, and OpenAI.

Angela Musallam, a spokesperson for the state government operations agency, said California high schools are part of the deal with Adobe, which aims to promote “AI literacy,” the idea that students and teachers should have basic skills to detect and use artificial intelligence. Individual K-12 districts would need to approve any deal.

Experts say it’s too early to tell how effective AI training will actually be. Justin Reich, an associate professor at MIT, noted that a similar frenzy occurred 20 years ago when teachers tried to teach computer literacy. “We do not know what AI literacy is, how to use it, and how to teach with it. And we probably won’t for many years,” Reich said.

The state’s new deals with Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM allow these tech companies to recruit new users, but the actual lessons aren’t time-tested. “Tech companies say: ‘These tools can save teachers time,’ but the track record is really bad,” said Reich. “You cannot ask schools to do more right now. They are maxed out.”

Erin Mote, the CEO of an education nonprofit called InnovateEDU, agreed that state and education leaders need to ask critical questions about the efficacy of the tools that tech companies offer. However, she stressed that schools still have an imperative to act. “There are a lot of rungs on the career ladder that are disappearing,” she said. “The biggest mistake we could make as educators is to wait and pause.”

Last year, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office signed an agreement with NVIDIA, a technology infrastructure company, to offer AI training similar to the kinds of lessons that Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM will deliver. Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office, said the state won’t share data about how the NVIDIA program is going because the cohort of teachers involved is still too small. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What are the main tech companies involved in the AI training initiative?

A: The main tech companies involved in the AI training initiative for California colleges are Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM.

Q: What concerns do educators have about AI integration in the classroom?

A: Educators are concerned about the potential loss of control over AI use in classrooms and the risk of students using AI as a crutch instead of developing critical thinking skills.

Q: How will the AI training programs benefit students?

A: The AI training programs aim to equip students with the skills to master new technologies, preparing them for a tech-driven job market and helping them adapt to the changing economy.

Q: What is the role of the California Community College system in this initiative?

A: The California Community College system is a key partner in the AI training initiative, working with tech companies to provide additional AI resources and training for teachers and students.

Q: How will the effectiveness of these AI training programs be evaluated?

A: The effectiveness of these AI training programs will be evaluated over time, with the community college system and other educational institutions reevaluating the use of AI tools and their impact on learning outcomes. 

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