Apple’s Detroit Academy Will Bring AI to American Factories
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Apple is making good on one of its promises to invest half a trillion in the US over the next four years. This morning, the company announced that its promised Detroit Manufacturing Academy is slated to open on August 19, offering free training for American workers in advanced manufacturing skills.
Plans for the new Apple Manufacturing Academy in Motor City were first announced in February as part of Apple’s goal to invest $500 billion in the US economy over the next four years. While this isn’t substantially more than Apple typically invests in the US, there seems to be a stronger focus on strengthening its American supply chain this time around, undoubtedly in response to pressure from the Trump administration.
As much as President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his strong desire to see Apple bring iPhone manufacturing to the US — and “absolutely” believes it’s possible — most analysts believe it’s a pipe dream. Perhaps it’s something that could be done in the very long term, but there’s no way it’s going to happen before the Trump administration’s expiration date.
In the meantime, Apple is doing whatever it can to get on board with the administration’s America-first agenda in far more tangible and productive ways. Earlier this month, Apple announced a partnership to spend $500 million on US rare earth magnets, and it’s also committed to opening a new 250,000-square-foot “advanced manufacturing facility” in Houston, Texas, to build the Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers for Apple Intelligence.
While these initiatives will create thousands of jobs within Apple’s immediate supply chain, the new Apple Manufacturing Academy has a much broader and more noble goal in mind: providing manufacturing businesses throughout the US with a knowledge on-ramp to embrace AI and smart manufacturing techniques to help them bolster production and efficiency.
“We’re thrilled to welcome companies from across the country to the Apple Manufacturing Academy starting next month,” said Sabih Khan, Apple’s newly minted chief operating officer. “Apple works with suppliers in all 50 states because we know advanced manufacturing is vital to American innovation and leadership. With this new programming, we’re thrilled to help even more businesses implement smart manufacturing so they can unlock amazing opportunities for their companies and our country.”
The Apple-sponsored academy, in partnership with Michigan State University, will offer free courses led by Apple experts to help small and medium-sized American businesses transition to advanced manufacturing.
Sessions will focus on machine learning and deep learning in manufacturing; automation in the product manufacturing industry; leveraging manufacturing data to improve product quality; applying digital technologies to enhance operations; and more.
Apple
In its press release, Apple adds that company engineers are also already engaged in consultations with American companies, both virtually and in-person, to help them improve their supply chains, and is inviting even more businesses to take advantage of its consulting services.
Since not everyone has the budget to travel to Detroit, Apple will also offer virtual sessions later this year to teach workers skills like project management and manufacturing process optimization.
Michigan State University has already set up a page for businesses interested in registering for courses or consultations, which can be found at manufacturingacademy.msu.edu.
