Smith agreed to have President Joe Biden join him at Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin, a political battleground state for the upcoming presidential election, to announce the company's $3.3 billion investment in cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. 

The investment fuels the creation of the country's first manufacturing-focused AI co-innovation lab, and an AI skill initiative to equip more than 100,000 of the state's residents with the ability to support the change in business.

"We will use the power of AI to help advance the next generation of manufacturing companies, skills and jobs in Wisconsin and across the country," Smith said in a release. "This is what a big company can do to build a strong foundation for every medium, small and start-up company and non-profit everywhere."

Microsoft's investment will certainly support education, especially for workers in many careers across the country who need to learn, but who will educate those in public service? To have the President stand with Smith to cheer on something he seemingly knows little about seems meaningless.

That misunderstanding of technology trickles down to others in the Democratic party such as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, who said she regrets making an offhand remark that suggested Black children in the Bronx do not know what the word “computer” means.

“Right now, we have young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word 'computer' is,” Hochul said onstage at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

The remark was never explained during the interview, but she did say her goal is to provide avenues for communities of color to access emerging AI technologies as a means of addressing social inequality.

Hochul made the comment Monday while being interviewed at a large business conference in California to discuss expanding economic opportunities in artificial intelligence for low-income communities. These kids she spoke of have a computer in their pocket, a mobile phone, and many of them received it as a gift from the government. 

The U.S. government, meanwhile, is asking U.S. companies for advice. Homeland Security wants to create a panel with some of the country’s CEOs from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAi. The 22-member safety and security board also will include academics, defense contractors, and more, and aims to support the government’s need to prevent disasters.

Other participants include the CEOs of Amazon Web Services, IBM, Cisco, AMD, and Anthropic.

Brands and search engine optimization experts are not concerned about the rise in AI in advertising. They know optimization will remain critical for advertising and website content whether or not there are links that consumers can click through from search engines to websites. Some in the industry have talked about the elimination of links. The need for more education, however, will increase.

Microsoft also announced today new capabilities in Copilot for Microsoft 365, and LinkedIn made free more than 50 learning courses for premium subscribers. The two companies released the 2024 Work Trend Index, a joint report on the state of AI  The research--based on a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, labor and hiring trends on LinkedIn--shows how in one year AI has influenced the way people work, lead and hire worldwide. 

Microsoft said the use of generative AI at work has nearly doubled in the past six months, and LinkedIn is seeing a significant increase in professionals adding AI skills to their profiles. Many leaders now say they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills.

But with many leaders worried their company lacks an AI vision, and employees bringing their own AI tools to work, leaders have reached the hard part of any tech disruption, which is moving from experiments to tangible business impact.

The report identified four types of AI users, from skeptics who rarely use AI to power users who use it extensively.

AI power users have reoriented their workdays in fundamental ways, reimagining business processes and saving over 30 minutes per day. More than 90% of power users say AI makes their overwhelming workload more manageable and their work more enjoyable, but they aren't doing it on their own.

These users are 61% more likely to have heard from their CEO on the importance of using generative AI at work, 53% more likely to receive encouragement from leadership to consider how AI can transform their function, and 35% more likely to receive tailored AI training for their specific role or function, according to the report.