AI tools are deeply embedded in the number of students, and their usage is poised to increase. On Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers announced an AI training hub for educators that will support Microsoft, Openai and the $23 million support from humanity.
AFT is the second largest teachers' union and represents 1.8 million teachers and education staff across the country. Their training hub will open in New York City this fall and feature workshops that educate teachers on how to use AI tools for tasks such as generating lesson plans and quizzes and writing emails to parents. Microsoft is offering $12.5 million to training AI teachers over the next five years. Openai contributes to $10 million.
“AI is already in school and influences lesson planning and how students learn both inside and outside the classroom. Educators, parents and students need to shape how AI is being used.
Integration of AI into learning is a hotly contested subject. Some teachers say AI tools help manage huge workloads and provide personalized instruction by students. Others worry that large tech companies will use AI to enrich themselves at the expense of teacher jobs and critical thinking development for students.
“Look at the real agenda of high-tech billionaires – even more business control over education,” writes Lois Weiner, an education professor and teachers' union activist, in Bluesky.
And while the Trump administration cut and frozen funds for education, it has greatly promoted AI education. Trump signed an executive order in April to enlist AI integration across K-12 education. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in April that it was “great” to help use AI to teach first-year students and “pre-ks.” (In particular, she called AI “A1.”)
read more: New MIT research shows that ChatGpt may be eroding critical thinking skills
Influence of influence
AI companies have actively pushed the tools to the classroom and young people's hands. Google recently rolled out a version of Gemini Chatbot for users under the age of 13, and partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to deploy the chatbot to more than 100,000 high school students. Humanity has promoted Claude as a fellow researcher, and several universities have implemented “AI-enabled learning.”
Therefore, students are rapidly adopting AI for their studies. The proportion of teenagers using ChatGpt for their studies has doubled over the past two years.
Sam Hiner, executive director of The Young Peith's Alliance, a policy advocacy nonprofit, says AI is already having a detrimental impact on many students across the country. “We see schools offering free chat gupts to students. Students turn back and write essays on chatgpt, make one or two changes before submitting them,” he says. “I've heard from members of the YPA that ChatGpt is a very simple crutch that young people feel they haven't learned anything anymore.”
However, Hiner acknowledges that AI training may be important for students as these tools will become central to modern economies. “I think this training needs to focus not only on what AI can do, but also on how to avoid the pitfalls that are likely to fall easily due to the convenience it offers,” he says.
Elizabeth Laird, Equity Director of Civic Technology at the Center for Democracy & Technology, also hopes that this AFT training will address many of the risks of AI. “[AI] It reduces trust between students and educators, spreads inaccurate information, prevents students from thinking critically, and allows for technology-driven sexual harassment,” she wrote in an email on time.
read more: Trump's “big beautiful bill” destroys public schools
Potential positives
Zach Kennelly, a teacher who leads AI integration into Denver Charter Schools' network, is seeing more AI potential in the classroom. He taught AP psychology last semester and used AI tools to provide students with immediate feedback on short analysis of psychological research. He also gave students a research guide and trained AI bot for practice exams, allowing them to develop their own personalized, interactive learning approaches for the AP exams.
“We create a new learning experience, provide personalized feedback to 60 students and help internalize it. We talk to them to effectively do 60 hours of 60 hours on two assignments,” he says. “Using certain AI tools allows you to move that process into two hours.”
Kennelly remains concerned about how AI tools are affecting critical thinking and the motivations of high-tech companies regarding education initiatives. “We're positioning ourselves in tech companies to lead conversations about how to do this in education. It has a troubling incentive and a real concern,” says Kennelly. “But I think this is a step forward because instead of straightening it out of tech companies, we're trying to lead educators.”
Weingarten repeated this sentiment to Bluesky. “The National Academy of AI was created with AFT members, and educators helped design the curriculum, testing tools and common sense guardrail drafts.
