Verizon to invest $70 million in AI training effort

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - ‌Verizon is ​investing $70 ​million in a nationwide effort to provide AI training to job ‌seekers, small business and educators as ⁠the U.S. economy undergoes a dramatic transformation, it ‌said on Wednesday.

The U.S. ‌telecom company is partnering major non-profit programs such as Goodwill Industries and aims to ​offer AI training to hundreds of thousands of people using training resources ⁠from companies including IBM, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI.

"AI will ​change the face of the workforce," Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said in ​an interview. "You have to ‌do this in order to protect the democracy."

Schulman wants large companies ⁠to join the effort to boost funding to help workers acquire skills for specific AI-related ⁠jobs. "It's in the self-interest of all business leaders ​to step up," Schulman said. "If every Fortune 100 (company) put $50 million or $70 million into this, we have a ‌multibillion-dollar fund."

Verizon announced last year that it was investing $20 million to ‌help departing employees gain AI skills ⁠after it announced ‌it was cutting ​13,000 jobs. The new effort adds $50 million.

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by David ‌Goodman)

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