Mark Cuban is bringing artificial intelligence boot camps to at least 18 cities across the country – including St. Louis.
The billionaire announced Monday that the AI camps, hosted by the Mark Cuban Foundation and first launched in 2019, will be open to high school students, grades nine through 12, and will take place during the first three Saturdays in November. More cities are expected to be announced.
Applications can be submitted on the foundation's website, and all costs are covered for accepted students. Each cohort includes 20 to 25 students.
The Mark Cuban Foundation partners with local businesses to put on the boot camps. Perficient, a St. Louis-based digital consultancy, will return as the foundation's local partner for the 2024 AI boot camp in St. Louis, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday. Last fall, Peficient partnered with the foundation to host the free AI boot camps for high school students from underrepresented communities at its local headquarters. Additional fall 2023 boot camps were also held in Perficient offices in Detroit, Dallas and Houston.
Cuban, the former majority owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, called AI an "undeniable force in all of our lives."
"While technology expands and becomes more advanced, it becomes more critical that we ensure our students are prepared when they apply for schools or jobs in the future," he said in a statement announcing the launch of the 2024 boot camps.
The boot camps will explore AI's existing presence in society, the ethics surrounding the technology and how to maximize the abilities of technology like ChatGPT. Cuban founded the boot camp program in 2019, committing $2 million a year later to expand it, according to the Wall Street Journal. The program encourages girls, students of color and students participating in free or reduced-cost lunch programs to apply to the program.
Cuban holds a stake in some 200 companies, many of them thanks to his role as a celebrity investor on the ABC show "Shark Tank."
In addition to St. Louis, the Mark Cuban Foundation's 2024 AI boot camps will take place in 12 states and Washington, D.C.
The St. Louis Business Journal contributed to this report.
