Starting in 2026, the CIC began funding the following interventions with the goal of removing barriers to AI education. Stay tuned for other interventions as we experiment and learn with our Partner Schools regarding proven approaches to making AI education available to all.
At most institutions, computing students do not take AI /ML courses until junior or senior year on account of the long list of prerequisites. The CIC funds departments to create an introductory AI and/or ML course (ideally with no/minimal prerequisites). Offered as early as the second or third semester, such a course exposes students to AI concepts early on, attracts non-majors, and serves as a low-barrier entry point.
While the ‘best’ time to introduce GenAI tools into the CS curriculum is still open to debate, many departments are working to incorporate these tools as early as CS1 and to find ways to keep pace with the rapidly evolving landscape. Through a pilot initiative, the CIC has begun supporting departments to update their CS1 to include teaching programming with GenAI (often making GenAI literacy an explicit learning outcome) and to establish clear policies on appropriate GenAI that span all sections of a course.
Traditional math prerequisite chains — calculus, linear algebra, and probability and statistics (most often taught by the math department) — often delay student access to AI and machine learning coursework. The CIC funds departments to develop an integrated “Math for AI” course that combines relevant math content and introduces foundational machine learning concepts. This approach shortens the path to upper-level AI courses and gives departments the opportunity to show how math content directly connects to AI.
As departments expand their AI offerings, courses can end up repeating the same material — especially machine learning concepts. The CIC supports schools to revisit and streamline their AI course sequence so that foundational topics are taught early on and just once, and so that faculty in the upper-level courses are confident they are building on that foundation rather than feeling the need to re-teach content.
As more and more departments launch and/or refine their graduate AI degrees, there is an opportunity to create pathways for students without undergraduate computing backgrounds to access these pathways. The CIC is working with a number of schools across the country to design and launch a discrete set of classes that present an onramp to a Master’s in AI. These work plans include curriculum development, tailored marketing and recruitment efforts and the expansion of student support services.