American Federation of Teachers partners with tech giants for AI education initiative

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to launch the National Academy for AI Instruction. This $23 million initiative, spanning five years, aims to train up to 400,000 K-12 educators in the United States on the use of generative AI tools in the classroom.

OpenAI is contributing $10 million, consisting of $8 million in cash and $2 million in computing resources and engineering support. Microsoft and Anthropic are providing the remaining $13 million. The academy will establish a flagship location at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters in Manhattan.

In a separate but related development, the AFT and Microsoft have reached an agreement to establish privacy and security standards for AI use in schools. The agreement prohibits Microsoft from tracking students and prevents AI from making decisions without human oversight. It also mandates transparency for educators and parents regarding how AI tools function. The AFT described the deal as a necessary measure to address the lack of federal and state regulations regarding AI in educational settings. Microsoft intends to make these protections available to all U.S. school districts starting November 1.