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AFT to launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers
AFT to launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers
About this update from Microsoft Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"NEW YORK, July 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The AFT, alongside the United Federation of Teachers and lead partner Microsoft Corp., founding partner OpenAI, and Anthropic, announced the launch of the National Academy for AI Instruction today. The groundbreaking $23 million education initiative will provide access to free AI training and curriculum for all 1.8 million members of the AFT, starting with K-12 educators. It will be based at a state-of-the-art bricks-and-mortar Manhattan facility designed to transform how artificial intelligence is taught and integrated into classrooms across the United States. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nThe academy will help address the gap in structured, accessible AI training and provide a national model for AI-integrated curriculum and teaching that puts educators in the driver's seat.\nTeachers are facing tremendous technological changes, which include the challenges of navigating AI wisely, ethically and safely. They are overwhelmed and looking for ways to gain the skills they need to help their students succeed. The program is the first partnership between a national union and tech companies, structured to create a sustainable education infrastructure for AI.\n\"To best serve students, we must ensure teachers have a strong voice in the development and use of AI,\" said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft. \"This partnership will not only help teachers learn how to better use AI, it will give them the opportunity to tell tech companies how we can create AI that better serves kids.\"\nThe announcement was made at the headquarters of the AFT's largest affiliate, the 200,000-member New York City-based UFT, where hundreds of educators were on hand for a three-day training session, including six hours of AI-focused material that highlighted practical, hands-on ways to marry the emerging technology with established pedagogy.\n\"AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges—and it's our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around,\" said AFT President Randi Weingarten. \"The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver's seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced.\n\"The academy is a place where educators ...