Mark Cuban Investing In AI Bootcamps For Low-Income Communities (2024)

Billionaire investor from Dallas, Mark Cuban, has recently committed $2 million to expand his program of teaching artificial-intelligence skills to high school students of low-income communities across the country at no cost.

According to Mark Cuban, the foundation — Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps program — was founded in 2019, believes in educating young minds about AI that is critical to the country’s global competitiveness. This program has been designed for students of low-income communities who struggle to get exposure to the technology.

During an interview with the news media, Cuban stated that people don’t realise the amount of talent is there in the country, and that’s why the goal of the foundation is to really go out and find the superstars. In fact, many students in low-income communities are under-appreciated and don’t have access to resources.

According to the media, the funding of $2 million will be spent on resources to educate hundreds of students in artificial intelligence over the next few years. Starting from paying for equipment, transportation, food and venues to hosting classes in person when possible and attracting corporate partners, the foundation will do it all. The foundation has a goal of teaching 1,000 students a year from 2023. It is planning to test it, build a curriculum for students, evolve it and iterate it as many times as required, and will be well funded, stated Cuban.

These lessons in the boot camps are currently being led by some of the experts of AI and data science such as experts from Walmart Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. Suresh Kumar, the global chief technology officer and chief development officer at Walmart, stated to the media that Mark’s AI mission resonates with him, and thus it has become essential to start training the next generation of great technologists.

Walmart uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalised experiences for shopping, such as product recommendations. Alongside, the company has also developed a virtual assistant for employees to use inside stores to get information about pricing and inventory.

When asked McDonald’s Corp, Craig Brabec, chief data analytics officer, stated the importance of everyone having the opportunity to understand how this technology works, and how it’s affecting daily lives.

The aim of this foundation is to raise awareness about diversity and inclusion issues within AI and the technology industry. As a matter of fact, women and minorities are underrepresented in artificial intelligence, which, in turn, contributes to algorithmic bias.

The bootcamps program began last year with about 40 high school students in Dallas, however grew to have reached more than 150 high-schoolers in Dallas and five other cities including Detroit and Omaha, according to the foundation.

This fall, the virtual boot camps will focus on four branches of artificial intelligence — chatbots, machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing. This will allow students to learn building chatbots, developing mock “smart homes” that can turn virtual lights on and off on command, and creating an AI model that recognises common traffic signs, an essential requirement for self-driving cars, stated Cuban.

In the October 24th virtual boot camp, a few students built a chatbot that answers questions about a fictitious ice cream shop and another that answers questions about the AI Bootcamps, based on the program’s website.

Read Mark Cuban’s interview here.

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