programs aimed at enhancing employees\u2019 skills<\/a>, the city is now looking for a generative AI platform that would reduce some repetitive and administrative aspects of jobs \u2014 such as writing reports, analyzing data, summarizing documents and supporting software development \u2014 freeing them up to work on more meaningful tasks.<\/p>\nKhaled Tawfik, the city\u2019s chief information officer, likened the adoption of AI to the way computing has now become an essential function in schools and workplaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen thousands of hours being saved through the training,\u201d Tawfik said. \u201cStaff is reporting back on how they\u2019re more efficient and saving time, so I\u2019m really happy to see this being offered to every resident in San Jose, and I think it\u2019s going to be expected, if not mandatory, for everyone to gain this experience and knowledge of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
While several free AI courses are readily available, Mahan said the city wanted the leading companies to compile their best training experiences and make them accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n
For example, Anthropic is providing access to its AI fluency course while OpenAI is opening up its literacy courses from its academy.<\/p>\n
Javier Gonzalez, Google\u2019s California government affairs and public policy manager, noted that the World Economic Forum reported that only 50% workers have access to adequate training opportunities, which is why Google has offered thousands of residents scholarships to its AI course offerings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is much more to be done, but this collaboration is a major step forward for the Bay Area\u2019s effort to build a skilled workforce for the AI economy,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThis is truly a blueprint for other parts of California and even the country to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 50% of residents speaking a language other than English, the courses will be available in a variety of languages. Bay Area Council COO John Grubb championed the agreement, saying it would help San Jose become the most AI-literate city.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, of the people using AI, most tend to be younger, high-income and highly educated,\u201d Grubb said. \u201cThat\u2019s exciting progress, but it also shows who\u2019s being left behind: lower-income residents, older adults and non-English speakers in particular. If we don\u2019t act, that gap will define the next decade of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahan compared the partnership to a startup, where the next iteration would add more robust offerings or areas of interest, whether in personal finance or in different pathways in education, academia, or public-sector careers.<\/p>\n
Although Mahan said it was important to have a centralized hub to locate all resources, he believed the most critical component of the new collaboration was its integration into the city\u2019s library system and community centers. Ultimately, the city aims to offer in-person training to guide residents through the curriculum.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like they say: ideas are cheap, execution is everything,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cThe question is: are we actually getting out to people in different languages, meeting them where they are and providing sufficient hand-holding to actually help them take advantage of it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At times, when exhausted from a long day and running late, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan asks artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2080,184,387,7,181,100,182,88,90,89,198,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-40228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pm-report","15":"tag-san-jose","16":"tag-san-jose-headlines","17":"tag-san-jose-news","18":"tag-santa-clara-county","19":"tag-south-bay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}