The California State University system, the largest and most diverse public four-year university in the country, announced a first-of-its-kind public-private initiative to drive AI training and tools across the system.
To do so, the CSU is working with some of the world’s leading tech companies, such as Adobe, Alphabet (Google), AWS, IBM, Instructure, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and also the Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We are proud to announce this innovative, highly collaborative public-private initiative that will position the CSU as a global leader among higher education systems in the impactful, responsible and equitable adoption of artificial intelligence,” said CSU Chancellor Mildred García.
“The comprehensive strategy will elevate our students’ educational experience across all fields of study, empower our faculty’s teaching and research, and help provide the highly educated workforce that will drive California’s future AI-driven economy,” García said.
The initiative sets out to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to create a higher education system designed to surpass any existing model of AI adoption in scale and impact.
“Leaders in higher education must act decisively to address and prepare for a future with AI, especially as AI literacy is already a key qualification for most employers in the workforce,” said SDSU President Adela de la Torre, who co-authored AI-related guidance for the higher education sector with SDSU Vice President for Information Technology James Frazee.
“We cannot ignore it and expect our students to navigate the implications of AI themselves. Nor can we embrace AI uncritically as a solution to our problems. Faculty, too, must be — and are — central to the discussion and our collective effort to build AI literacy, starting with access, informed policy, and comprehensive training,” she said. “I am grateful that our own faculty, staff and students have worked closely since last year to co-develop guidelines and training, which we will continue to refine further given the evolving landscape.”
New advisory board established to drive plans
At the heart of the initiative is the AI Workforce Acceleration Board, a collaboration with nearly a dozen of the world’s leading tech companies and Newsom’s office that will identify and advocate for AI skills needed in California’s workforce and its economy.
Frazee, also SDSU’s Chief Information Officer, is a new member of the system-wide advisory board.
The board will work to foster innovation and drive interdisciplinary practical applications of AI by providing access to internships and employment opportunities and organizing a series of AI challenges for CSU students to address key issues using AI technology.
“Public universities, tasked with serving our diverse communities and fostering workforce and economic development, have a responsibility to ensure that AI drives progress without perpetuating deficits and privacy challenges,” Frazee said.
“However, within higher education, and based on our own research at SDSU, we recognize that AI integration into coursework is uneven,” he said. “Without clear guidelines and adoption paths, AI risks widening the digital divide. To address this, we have collaborated with the University Senate’s Instructional and Information Technology Committee as well as other SDSU faculty and students to create training and guidelines for using generative AI in assessments and deliverables for our community.”
García said the advisory board will guide the initiative. Systemwide community members will also collaborate to leverage AI technologies to address pressing issues such as climate change and housing affordability.
“The CSU’s unprecedented adoption of AI technologies will make training, learning, and teaching tools—including ChatGPT—available across all 23 CSU universities, ensuring that the system’s more than 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff have equitable access to cutting-edge tools that will prepare them to meet the rapidly changing education and workforce needs of California,” she said, adding that the CSU will also work with OpenAI to deploy ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT offering advanced tools, security and controls.
“At the CSU, we have two imperatives: to equip our students with the skills to leverage these powerful tools, and to transform our own institutional practices through AI to better serve the largest public university system in the nation,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s Chief Information Officer.
SDSU-specific tools, training available
The CSU will create a dedicated AI Commons Hub, a platform offering AI tools, training programs and certifications, and CSU-developed solutions to all students, faculty and staff. The CSU will partner with its faculty to enhance teaching, learning and research by empowering faculty with AI tools, resources and training. And CSU students will have additional opportunities to work in AI technology-enabled organizations through apprenticeship programs.
While these and other tools are set to be released in the coming weeks, AI-related tools and resources are already available to SDSU students, faculty and staff.
Last year, SDSU became the first university in the CSU system to launch the AAAI Micro-credential, providing comprehensive AI and generative AI training (GenAI) to faculty and staff. The training is now freely available to students. The program prepares SDSU students, faculty and staff to apply generative AI technology efficiently, effectively and ethically. Details and information on how to sign up for the mini-course in Canvas are available on the IT site.
The program was recently adapted and published by the CSU Chancellor’s Office for use by the more than 500,000 faculty, staff and students across the system. Additionally, SDSU Global Campus recently launched a publicly available version of the AAAI Micro-credential program in partnership with the IT Division.
SDSU also offers enterprise GenAI tools like Adobe Firefly, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Notebook LM and the Zoom AI Companion, as outlined on the AI Services page.
The university has also adopted GenAI guidelines for all campus community members, which are designed to help ensure information security, data and personal privacy, copyright laws, accuracy and academic integrity. Further, the additional guidelines related to assessments and deliverables were developed by the University Senate’s IT committee and can be found in the Curriculum Guide.
“Now is the time for action,” Frazee said. “Higher education leaders must prioritize affordability, equity and responsible AI use to ensure all students can thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world – which has been a strategic focus for us here at SDSU. By embracing AI’s potential while both acknowledging and working to mitigate its risks, universities can take the initiative and innovate for the benefit of our students and also faculty and staff rather than passively reacting to AI’s impact around us.”