Artificial Intelligence

Educators fed ready-made lesson-planning templates into artificial intelligence, chatted with AI-created podcasters and experimented with different AI models at AFT TEACH on July 27.

Using a four-stage model, presenters at the AFT TEACH conference showed educators how to responsibly implement artificial intelligence in the classroom.

The AFT Artificial Intelligence Symposium, held July 24 in Washington, D.C., brimmed with enthusiasm for the myriad ways artificial intelligence can ignite learning, spur creativity and alleviate workloads—and offered a host of warnings about potential harm if educators and unions do not step up to meet this transformative moment.

In a sweeping move to leverage artificial intelligence as a tool for learning and to minimize its harms, the AFT has partnered with the United Federation of Teachers, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic to launch a first-of-its-kind national AI academy for educators.

At “AI in Education and Beyond,” a joint AFT-Microsoft conference in Chicago Aug. 11-13, participants voiced joy and fear in the same breath: Excitement at the learning options artificial intelligence opens versus concern for student safety.

Teachers had an ambitious agenda at their divisional meeting on Monday, where they learned about the union’s guide to artificial intelligence, discussed the assessment portion of the Every Student Succeeds Act and heard from author Josh Cowen about the threat of vouchers and how to fight it.