Governor Maura Healey announced Thursday that the state is partnering with Google to offer free artificial intelligence and career certificate courses to every Massachusetts resident, a move she said would bolster Massachusetts’ standing as a hub of the fast-growing AI industry.
“Making Massachusetts the applied AI capital of the United States — that’s what we’re driving for, every single day,” Healey said in remarks at Google’s offices in Cambridge’s Kendall Square.
“We want our innovators and companies and talent to know that this is the place to be if you want to be on board with using AI to more quickly cure diseases and find treatments and solve problems, whether they’re in the defense industry, robotics, life sciences, biotech, you name it,” Healey said.
Healey, who described the new partnership as “democratiz[ing] AI,” also suggested that widespread training could help ensure that the potent new technology is used ethically moving forward.
“People are nervous about AI and the uses of AI, the potentially negative uses of AI and what can happen,” Healey said. “You know, the more of us that know AI, that understand AI, that work with AI, the safer I believe we’re going to be and the more appropriate guard rails will be put in place, because more people will understand.”
Healey has been consistently bullish on AI’s potential in Massachusetts, both as a driver of economic growth and a way to improve how work gets done in various sectors, including state government. Earlier this month, she announced the deployment of the ChatGPT-powered AI Assistant to roughly 40,000 workers in the state’s executive branch.
While the governor said that move would make government “faster, more efficient, and more effective,” it drew pushback from the National Association of Government Employees, or NAGE. The union said Healey was “rushing” implementation of the new technology, and that some state workers have voiced concerns about AI replacing work they’ve traditionally done.
In her remarks Thursday, however, Healey also cast the new partnership with Google as a boon to Massachusetts workers. That theme was echoed by Lisa Gevelber, the founder of Grow with Google, Google’s educational arm.
“It’s no secret that the job market is entering a brand new chapter,” Gevelber said. “Your career is no longer a straight line. It’s actually a continuous learning journey … This thing called AI is transforming industries, and it’s also redefining what it means to be job ready.”
The financial value of the new Massachusetts-Google partnership is unclear, and will depend on how many Mass. residents take advantage of the free offerings. Grow With Google’s new AI Professional Certificate course ordinarily costs $49 per month.
Massachusetts residents won’t be the only beneficiaries of Google’s largesse when it comes to free course offerings. Kevelber also announced Thursday that the AI Professional Certificate will be made available at no cost to every small business in the United States.
