--- title: "Connected Intelligence: The AI Network Effect in Higher Ed" slug: "lisa-gevelber-grow-with-google-connected-intelligence-the-ai-network-effect-asu-gsv-2026" author: "Lisa Gevelber" date: "2026-04-14 12:00:00" category: "Premium" topics: "ASU+GSV 2026, conference transcript, AI in Education, Higher Education, Workforce Development" summary: "Lisa Gevelber of Grow with Google announces what she describes as Google's largest-ever commitment to AI in education: free AI training for all six million U.S." banner: "" thumbnail: "" --- > **ASU+GSV 2026 Summit** | Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 10:10 am-10:50 am | AI & Frontier Tech ## Speakers - **Lisa Gevelber**, Grow with Google ## Key Takeaways - Lisa Gevelber of Grow with Google announces what she describes as Google's largest-ever commitment to AI in education: free AI training for all six million U.S. - educators (in partnership with ISTE and ASCD) and the Google AI for Education Accelerator, available at no cost to every non-profit higher education institution in America. - Over 400 colleges and universities have already joined the accelerator, which includes Google career certificates, Gemini and NotebookLM tools with FERPA/HIPAA compliance, and the Google AI Professional Certificate now recommended for college credit by the American Council on Education. - Gevelber emphasizes that the real power lies in the community of practice being built -- institutions learning from each other -- citing examples of NYU, University of Maryland, and Texas A&M cross-pollinating AI teaching innovations through the accelerator's webinar series. ## Notable Quotes > "Having a piano in your house doesn't make you a musician, and having an AI tool at your disposal also doesn't make you fluent." > > — **Lisa Gevelber** > "We need to invest not just in platforms, but much more importantly, we need to invest in people." > > — **Lisa Gevelber** > "This is a time in history where every single person, whether you're just starting out or you've been doing this forever, is at the same point in their learning curve." > > — **Lisa Gevelber** ## Full Transcript I'm so happy to see everyone, and I know it's been a long morning already, so I thought I'd start with a little question. How many of you used AI in your work last week? That's almost everyone. And how many of you got any sort of formal training in how to use that AI? That's almost no one. And that gap between this tool in our hands and the real knowledge and how to use it well, that's what I wanted to talk a little bit about today. We all know AI is here. Almost all of you guys raised your hands. We all know that students are using it in all kinds of ways, including in the best ways, as a personal tutor. We know that teachers are using it to bring to life interesting new lesson plans. And we know that institutions are using it to help in all kinds of ways as they work from the front in teaching to the back in making their operations more efficient. But we also know that to make the most of this AI opportunity, every single person needs to know how to use it both effectively and responsibly. Having a piano in your house doesn't make you a musician, and having an AI tool at your disposal also doesn't make you fluent. If we want students to be able to be prepared for the jobs of today, if we want faculty to be able to learn to use these tools to help teach their students in new and interesting ways, and if we want to make the most of this at our higher ed and lower academic institutions, we need to invest not just in platforms, but much more importantly, we need to invest in people. And that's what we're doing at Google. As a matter of fact, we've just made two of the largest announcements. It's actually the biggest commitment ever to train all six million educators in our country absolutely for free. And we're doing this in partnership with ISTE and ASCD, and we're so excited about this program, partly because it was built by educators for educators, built in bite-size, easily digestible, you can do it on your break ways. And really hands-on interactive learning for every educator from K-12 all the way to higher education. But we also know that beyond teaching each individual how to use this tool, our institutions need tools. They need help. And that's why we created the Google AI for Education Accelerator. This accelerator in combination with the Google AI Educator Series I was just talking about is available for free to every non-profit higher ed institution in America. And already over 400 colleges and universities in our country are using it. Everyone from the University of Michigan, my alma mater, to Purdue, the University of Texas system, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, USC, NYU, so, so many others. And in the accelerator, I want to tell you what's included. All of our Grow with Google career certificates, so career training for all your students, all of our AI training programs, and our most advanced AI tools, Gemini and Notebook LM, including all of those privacy protections that we care about, FERPA, HIPAA, and COPA compliance. Those are all amazing things. But the most important thing, I think, about the Google AI for Education Accelerator is the community that we're building. This is a time in history where every single person, whether you're just starting out or you've been doing this forever, is at the same point in their learning curve. So what's important about the accelerator is the ability for everyone to learn from each other. Included in the program is our Google AI Professional Certificate. What I love about that certificate is not only was it built by the experts at Google, it was vetted by some of the top employers in the country. And I know we all care that our students today are landing well in the world of work. This certificate actually teaches you exactly what these employers are looking for. As a matter of fact, it's being used today by top employers to upskill their current employees. People like Walmart, Deloitte, Verizon, Colgate, and so many others are using it for their own employees. And we're excited to announce that the American Council on Education is recommending college credit for this course. So you can take the AI Professional Certificate, you can earn a credential that helps you stand out in the workforce and gives you the skills that employers are looking for, and earn college credit at the same time. We're super excited about this program. We're excited about the Google AI Educator Series. And in reality, what we're excited about is bringing people together to learn from each other. One of my favorite examples is a program that we do in our webinar series as part of the Accelerator. A few weeks ago, Clay Shirky from NYU used his webinar to teach every other participant in the seminar how they're using Notebook LM at NYU for faculty and for research and for teaching. Then the University of Maryland created an innovative program. And guess what? Texas A&M heard about it and created their own AI Learn-A-Thon. And that's what we're seeing over and over again. Because not only do you want to see what the experts in AI are saying, I think you want to see what everyone else is doing, and that's what the Google AI Accelerator is providing. So we're working on building an extraordinary community. I want to invite all of you to participate. I brought with me a few URLs so that you can easily find access to all these materials. Again, we're providing the Google AI Educator Series and the AI Accelerator absolutely for free, and I hope you'll join us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. --- *This transcript was put together by our friend [Philippos Savvides](https://scaleu.org) from Arizona State University. The original transcript and additional summit resources are available on [GitHub](https://github.com/savvides/asu-gsv-2026-summit-intelligence). Licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).*