The American Federation of Teachers is using $23 million in funds from three tech companies to launch a program to train educators on AI skills.
On Tuesday, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union announced $12.5 million from Microsoft, $10 million in funding and technical resources from OpenAI and $500,000 from Anthropic would be used for a New York-based hub to teach AI. The AFT is working in partnership with the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing New York school workers.
The hub will be called the National Academy for AI Instruction and according to OpenAI, will serve 400,000 educators to develop AI fluency by 2030 with workshops, online courses and hands-on training sessions. The plan, according to the company, is to start in New York and scale nationwide, including additional hubs elsewhere in the country. The effort will begin with a focus on K-12 educators.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
In a post on X, AFT president Randi Weingarten wrote, «This will be an innovative new training space where educators will learn not just about how A.I. works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically.It will be a place where tech developers and educators can talk with each other, not past each other.»
The announcement was not met with unanimous praise. On an announcement post on the UFT’s Facebook page, commenters were not happy. «AI use has been proven to reduce brain activity but sure, why not,» one commenter posted.
Another wrote, «This is absolutely a horrible decision by the Union. It is undermining our work and also doesn’t take in consideration the ramifications of AI in education.»