New AI-focused college announced

Three nonprofits — Khan Academy, TED and the Educational Testing Service — said April 14 they are creating the Khan TED Institute, a new college focused on applied artificial intelligence. (edsource.org) The group said the institute expects to open applications in 12 to 18 months, or in 2027, and plans to offer a bachelor’s degree in applied artificial intelligence. It said the program is being designed to cost under $10,000. (ets.org) Students would move ahead by showing mastery instead of logging classroom hours, according to the organizers. The first degree is built around three pillars: core subjects, applied artificial intelligence work, and communication and leadership training. (khanacademy.org) The applied artificial intelligence track includes artificial intelligence-assisted app development, financial modeling, building artificial intelligence agents, and team deployment projects. The organizers said students would also study mathematics, statistics, economics, computer science, science, history and writing. (ets.org) The launch lands as California’s higher education systems are adding artificial intelligence training at scale instead of treating it as a niche specialty. The California State University said in February 2025 that artificial intelligence tools and training would be made available to all 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff across its 23 campuses. (calstate.edu) California’s community colleges moved in the same direction in 2025. The Chancellor’s Office said its artificial intelligence fellows program would support all 116 colleges in a system that serves 2.1 million students and employs 88,000 professionals. (cccco.edu) Google also announced a September 2025 partnership with California Community Colleges to provide Gemini for Education, NotebookLM, Google Career Certificates and artificial intelligence training across the system. The company said the partnership would reach 2.1 million students and faculty. (blog.google) The new institute is also tying its curriculum to employers from the start. Khan Academy and ETS said Google, Microsoft, Accenture, Bain & Company, McKinsey and Replit are participating as corporate partners to help shape skills linked to jobs. (khanacademy.org) Sal Khan said the project is meant to widen options, not replace existing universities. For now, the institute is still in development, with organizers asking prospective students and partners to register interest ahead of the 2027 application launch. (khanacademy.org)