The American Federation of Teachers, which is the second-largest teachers union in the United States, announced its initiative to launch an AI training center for educators, backed by $23 million in support from three prominent chatbot companies: Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

The union revealed plans to establish the National Academy for AI Instruction in New York City, beginning with interactive workshops for teachers this fall focused on utilizing AI tools for tasks such as creating lesson plans.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, says, “The AI academy was inspired by other unions, such as the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, that have worked with industry partners to set up high-tech training centers.”

“The New York hub will be an innovative new training space where school staff and teachers will learn not just about how AI works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically,” adds Weingarten.

The financial backing from the industry is part of an initiative by American tech firms to transform education using generative AI chatbots. These applications, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot, are capable of generating essays, research summaries, and quizzes that resemble human writing.

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In February, California State University, which is the largest public university system in the United States, announced it would offer ChatGPT to approximately 460,000 students. This spring, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the nation, began implementing Google's Gemini AI for over 100,000 high school students.

The Trump administration, which has recently put a halt on nearly $7 billion in educational funding, has called on the industry to contribute to AI education.

 

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Last week, the White House encouraged American companies and nonprofit organizations to supply AI grants, technological resources, and training materials for schools, educators, and students. Since that announcement, numerous companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI, have agreed to participate.