(Antonio) We are right now at the Artificial Intelligence Center at Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.

This is a space that was uniquely created with the advanced computing power to really help any student come and learn about artificial intelligence, but also with the spaces to be interactive, to be creative, to learn about robotics.

At the same time, we have this space created for events and community gathering and workshop info sessions, because we want to attract the community to demystify AI, to show what artificial intelligence can do, and to really learn how to apply it quickly in an ethical way.

Miami Dade College has created the first associate and bachelor's degrees in the state of Florida for artificial intelligence, and these programs are uniquely designed to help anyone in the community learn skills to adapt AI into their day to day, their work, or their future job.

We do have the college level students, but most of the participants in the program so far, these are working professionals that all learners between 30 and 50 years old, they are more than 50% of the participants.

And we realize that they're coming to get specific skills to learn about AI, to learn about machine learning, to learn about the applications that they can bring to their own job and quickly be productive.

And some of them are even creating new companies after learning about these AI skills.

That is not just about embedding into what they do, they come up with a brand new idea that they want to develop to create a new product, or a new company, or a new software to apply AI in our society.

It's not just about technology.

It's not about those super specialized technicians or computer scientists or data analysts bringing artificial intelligence.

This is about every single sector, every single person.

And it's as simple as a restaurant applying AI to be more productive and efficient.

Or when you're doing gaming and you're developing games that you can learn about AI early on in your career.

When you graduate, when you have the right skills to apply what every company is looking for, someone that can embed AI in the day to day.

Very few people know that we've been teaching AI for ten years now.

Here at magic.

Magic is the Miami Animation and Gaming International complex at Miami Dade College, Downtown Miami.

At the Wolfson campus, we offer two academic programs, one in animation and game art, and the other one is on game development and design.

Animation and game art is for students seeking to learn how to do storytelling using the medium of animation.

Game art is when you create animations for a video game, and then our other major is game development.

These are the programmers, these are the architects of the video game.

Game design are the individuals that are doing the level designs, the environments.

You know, for a video game.

The students are actually doing one of the live workshops that we're having.

It's a two-hour workshop where they're kind of working on some kind of foundational skill, and it's not only on site here, but it's also online and kind of work on your portfolio pieces or whichever principle that you need to enhance in your skill set.

The bootcamp is part of the animation incentive program that we actually implemented last year, together with Chemical Mfgm and the Careersource South Florida.

The Miami Animation Incentive Program is a program that will allow studios from all over the world to hire Miami animators against a tax incentive that the employer gets.

These three boot camps, workshops that were offering their 100% free.

And the goal is to actually get, you know, the animators more versed and more proficient.

So it's part of this overall program that was created to get employers to hire local.

Right now, the industry is evolving at a rapid pace.

Now we have AI that's getting implemented into the workflow in the pipeline, and we all have different like perspectives on, especially for the art community of how AI is being used.

But we have to keep understanding that AI is here to stay, we have to understand how to use that tool.

I'm halfway through the program, I still have one more year left.

And right now I just had so much fun doing, like the storyboarding, the character designs.

I've learned so much from this that I'm just so excited for what the future holds for me.

AI is a little scary in my opinion.

Um, I feel like it may threaten some jobs out there, but I really think it could be put into some helpful use in terms of like doing the really monotonous, tedious stuff.

Since we're humans, it's really like up to us whether we put it to good use or not.

(Sandra) Here, you kind of have more freedom to create, and so you can implement AI in an ethical way to create a unique game mechanic or unique art style, and then combine that with your art style and take it to the next level, because you're not going to make that your core art.

It's just going to give you an idea of where you can go.

Because as humans, we have our limitations, unfortunately, of how we perceive the world.

We're kind of caught in our own little matrix or box.

But here I is, ending up pulling down those walls and giving us other avenues of thinking so that we can implement that into our workflow.

I think AI is a double-edged sword.

My knee jerk reaction is to say AI no bueno, right?

I've heard countless horror stories about AI replacing jobs within the art and animation industry.

And that's scary for me.

As someone who is studying this, right, we need to find better applications of it than to replace what we, the artists bring to the table.

Because at the end of the day, no matter how smart the AI programs can get, you cannot replace the human soul.

Our mission really is jobs.

We work with our local partners and employers to find out what they need.

What skills are they looking for?

During the programme, we have a mentorship programme where we partner with animation studios from all over the country and locally as well, where students receive mentorship from industry professionals.

And after we rely on also our industry partners to provide our students with internships, you know, first entry level position jobs.

Bottom line, you know, like every other business, if you cut costs and if you increase profit, then we have a winner.

Carnival Cruise Lines, they're gamifying all their ships and they're hiring older programmers.

The construction industry here in Miami now, they're bidding projects in virtual reality, and they're hiring our students to create those simulations so they can bid projects.

So it's a win-win for everybody, lower their costs, increase their profit, and we get jobs.

So it's so important that Miami-Dade College invest in these academic programs to offer a very, very reasonable pricing to our community because they end up being high paying jobs.

You know, students get a very, very decent salary, not only changes their lives, but changes the lives of their whole household and therefore change the lives of our community.

Now, after ten years, we're celebrating ten years of magic next year.

I can tell you as a fact that we are getting jobs.

Industry is hiring our students and we're making an impact here.

I know many people are still wondering if AI is for me.

Should I learn about AI?

Really?

AI is not replacing jobs.

People that know AI are the ones that are going to replace the ones that don't know about AI.

Miami-Dade College is here for that purpose, to help the community, to help anyone that wants to learn about artificial intelligence to do it.

Don't be afraid.

You don't need to have any previous experience.

You can come to Miami Dade College.

Our courses start August 26th and they are available with scholarships, tuition scholarships for every Miami Dade County resident.