Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is investing $35 million to establish a private school in San Francisco that “aims to turn high school graduates into business founders,” the SF Standard reports.
Or, as CBS News describes it :
“A top Silicon Valley investor has a suggestion for young people who are undecided about attending college: college or enrolling in an artificial intelligence (AI) school?
Specifically, the academy will provide training focused on areas such as AI system design, startup fundraising, business sales, and storytelling. Students will not take exams or have homework, but will focus on creating real projects. The courses will be taught by tech entrepreneurs, and the academy announced that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will participate as a teacher or guest speaker.
From SF Standard:
“There will be no traditional grades, exams, or homework.” Instead, students will be encouraged to “create” in San Francisco and collaborate with executives from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others. They will also be encouraged to live on the school’s San Francisco campus. “The primary goal is to help students learn to create, which is the most important skill in the age of artificial intelligence,” Gagan Biyani, the academy’s CEO, wrote in X. Biyani was a co-founder of the educational technology startup Udemy.
The school is opening applications for its “Founding Class Fellowship” — a tuition-free, annual program for about 50 students. The academy said it will bring in big names from Silicon Valley, such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, as guest speakers and faculty members.
Students in the founding class will receive approximately $50.000 worth of computing power (credits) — the coveted “currency” in Silicon Valley for running AI models — as well as a $5.000 budget for travel and research.
The school is funded by tech executives including Fidji Simo (former OpenAI and Instacart executive), Garry Tan (CEO of Y Combinator), and Tobi Lütke (CEO of Shopify). “In the age of AI, it’s more important to have a portfolio of projects you’ve worked on and professional experience than to have a degree or certificate,” Biyani told the San Francisco Chronicle:
Biyani said the academy plans to increase its student population and launch a two-year degree program — subject to receiving the necessary approvals — in the fall of 2028. Tuition is expected to be in line with the cost of attending top private universities…
The academy has raised $42 million in funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz. The ten founding partners are: Anduril, Anthropic , Coinbase, Google , Meta , Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir , Replit, and Stripe.
According to the academy's website, its network — consisting of hundreds of instructors, staffing partners, and guest speakers — includes figures such as OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, and Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.
In the FAQ section, a typical week is described as follows: “Most of the time is yours to use as you wish. Each week, you share your progress with fellow students and industry professionals, receive immediate feedback, and decide on the next steps of your work.”
Q: Can I use artificial intelligence to help me with my application?
A: Yes. Use AI as you would any other project: to move faster, test ideas, and overcome the blank page barrier…
“The best jobs now are those that are so difficult that they can’t be solved without the help of AI,” Andreessen Horowitz told X.com. “The Academy’s courses follow that same logic and will be taught by world-class leaders. The next generation won’t be taught the way the last one was taught. The Academy is built for this new world, and it’s starting in San Francisco.”
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
