Code Girls United has received $80,000 from Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT for their YouTube channel.
Code Girls AI Academy on YouTube was in the works for several months before it was launched Dec.5. Code Girls United Executive Director Marianne Smith says technology is changing so quickly and they wanted to be sure they were adopting it in an ethical way and so girls could be creators, not just users.
“It’s taken a while because we were still trying to figure out what we were going to teach, said Smith. “And then figure out how we were going to teach it. But I think the key what we were doing is the girls have been very involved in the whole process.”
The Code Girls AL Academy has 19 videos. They cover the types of AI, ethics, how to use AI. And they include activities.
“What we wanted to do is make it more familiar for kids so we did it kind of gamer style where the girls are doing the activity, and they’re commenting on it,” Smith said.
The videos are free.
“People that who want to learn more what AI is and what all this hoopla about all this stuff can watch the videos and hopefully learn something, too,” Smith added.
Code Girls United now reaches more than 900 girls in 4th through 12th grade and tribal high schools in Montana, with after school programs in technology literacy and business skills to build confidence and unlock career opportunities.
The $80,000 from People First AI Fund from Open AI Foundation will help them expand the work. Smith says they hope to eventually end up with over 100 videos for the academy.
