Students at Hinsdale Central High School and Hinsdale South High School will get access to Nvidia's artificial intelligence curriculum for the 2026-27 school year.

The District 86 board approved a partnership agreement with the tech giant at its Tuesday, Sept. 29, meeting, according to Patch. The pilot will initially serve students in the technology support internship program and AI club members at both schools.

The program uses Nvidia's Deep Learning Institute courses, previously reserved for university students and industry professionals, delivered through Studyfetch's Honen platform. Studyfetch operates the learning platform and collects only a student's name and school email address. Students will build skills in AI, accelerated computing and data science at no cost to the district.

Michael Swanson, the district's chief technology officer, said at the Sept. 29 meeting that Nvidia operates a closed system designed to prevent its AI models from acting outside intended boundaries. He called the company a leader in safety and security.

Data privacy was a central concern throughout months of deliberation. The district's FAQ document states all student data remains district property. Nvidia is prohibited from using it for targeted advertising or profiling students for non-educational purposes. The provider also cannot use student data to train AI models, a provision aligned with the Illinois Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA). The agreement does permit data use for adaptive learning and product recommendations to district staff.

District officials first discussed the Nvidia partnership publicly at the June 25 board meeting. Former board member Kay Gallo filed a complaint with the Illinois attorney general's office, alleging the board violated the state's open meetings law when it formed a committee to explore the deal in February. As of late June, the attorney general was reviewing the complaint, Patch reported. The complaint's current status is unclear.

At the Aug. 26 board meeting, Superintendent Chip Pettit acknowledged the scrutiny. "As 75 percent of our staff and 90 percent of our students are already using AI, we're now in this space trying to figure out how this can be productive," Pettit said, according to Patch.

The district evaluated competing platforms, including Bentonville AI, Inspirit AI and Veritas AI, before selecting Nvidia. Three virtual meetings in early 2026 included representatives from Nvidia, District 86, District 181, the Village of Hinsdale, the DuPage Regional Office of Education and DuPage County government.

The district's FAQ acknowledges risks. Students could become over-reliant on AI-generated summaries, fail to spot reliability problems in automated content, or lack the advanced math skills needed for topics like tensor manipulation. No independent framework exists to evaluate AI programs like this one for high school students, the FAQ notes.

At Hinsdale Central, four teachers lead the technology support internship course and sponsors run the AI Innovators Club and Coding Club. At Hinsdale South, one teacher leads the course and one sponsor runs the AI Club.

The district has not announced a timeline for evaluating whether the pilot will continue beyond the 2026-27 school year. Success will be measured by student logins, credentials earned, teacher feedback and comparison data from Nvidia on how District 86 students perform relative to other participating high schools.