Blog on The CTO Blog

AI Training Challenges

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0700

A professor recently shared with me that he was preparing to integrate generative AI into a course. Curious, I asked how he deals with the fact that whatever he tells the students about AI will be obsolete before the end of the semester. He laughed - ‘I’m waiting until the week before each class to put my slides together.’ Of course academics often navigate paths at the forefront of knowledge, but what about within the University administration?

AI is not creative - you are

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0800

Through many discussions over the last few years with creatives– authors, musicians, faculty and staff in the humanities, as well as in my own family– I understand the feeling of powerlessness over artificial intelligence capabilities that could threaten our human agency and creativity. But let’s look from a different angle…

Dave Birss's hands-on generative AI course

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0700

Next, let’s shift gears and get hands on with an entertaining course by Dave Birss. He has an earlier course covering similar material that’s part of LinkedIn Learning’s AI Literacy path, but I’m recommending the more recently created How to Research and Write Using Generative AI Tools.

Responsible AI- Principles and Practical Applications course

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0700

LinkedIn Learning’s Responsible AI course, taught by Berkeley academics, starts with a conceptual overview on what AI is and isn’t– followed by a balanced consideration of benefits and risks.

Unofficial CTO Recommendations: AI Courses for Berkeley Staff

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0700

From engineering to smart prompting to social impact, considerations on how to use AI are vast and rapidly evolving, integrated into every app and tool we’re using today– a daily explosion of new opportunities and challenges to consider.

Governance and Community for AI at Berkeley

Thu, 09 May 2024 12:00:00 -0700

An overview of Berkeley’s approach to AI governance and community engagement, balancing innovation with responsible implementation through foundational governance, community building, and functional governance.

Berkeley's Transparency Report Turns Five

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:00:00 -0700

January 28th brings another Data Protection Day. Five years ago today we launched UC Berkeley’s “bConnected Transparency Report” to give our students, faculty, and staff a clear idea about how the University handles their personal information in services like Google, Box, and Sharepoint.

How do you encourage employee growth while balancing their workload?

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 12:00:00 -0800

As a manager, in addition to the tactical discussions, I like to have conversations with my staff every so often about where they’d like to be in a year, and in 2–3 years. Good coaching helps people articulate their goals and then visualize the path to achieving them.

Jupyterhub at Berkeley

Fri, 10 May 2019 12:00:00 -0700

We live in a world awash in data. As individuals and as a society we need to learn how to better understand, analyze, and use it. To that end, Berkeley recently started an exciting initiative to teach every undergraduate the fundamentals of data science.

Updates and Progress on Cloud Computing at Berkeley

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 12:00:00 -0700

The most salient recent developments have been in focusing our work to align with the Chancellor’s strategy – in the case of cloud computing, especially towards support for scaling up Jupyterhub to meet the needs of the Division of Data Sciences.

How the Web Access Team Started at Berkeley

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:00:00 -0800

The API Department’s Web Access team helps units all over UC Berkeley assess how their websites and other technologies work for people with disabilities, and recommends improvements where needed.

The Berkeley Cloud Strategy

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 12:00:00 -0700

I wanted to share a brief overview of UC Berkeley’s Cloud Strategy so that anyone can get a sense of it in a few minutes. The most important takeaway is that it directs our focus always to be ‘University First’. As a campus, we must invest in technology that meets the needs of the campus mission for our faculty, students, and administration – rather than focusing on technology first or ‘Cloud First’.

Innovating and Creating

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 12:00:00 -0700

Tom Holub interviews Bill Allison on how he keeps his teams innovative and creative, transitioning from legacy technologies, and assessing performance as a manager.