Preparing for the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Protecting Democracy, Workers, Students and the Planet

WHEREAS, artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping nearly every aspect of society, including education, healthcare, employment, media, communication, public services, and democracy itself; and

WHEREAS, technological innovation should improve the lives of working people, students and communities rather than concentrate wealth and power into the hands of a small number of individuals and corporations; and

WHEREAS, workers, students and communities should not bear the costs of technological disruption while corporations capture the profits and avoid accountability; and

WHEREAS, unions and collective bargaining are essential tools for ensuring AI is implemented in ways that strengthen rather than weaken workers, students, families and communities; and

WHEREAS, public education, public services and democratic institutions must remain grounded in human relationships, professional expertise, transparency and accountability:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will fight to ensure artificial intelligence serves humanity, democracy and the common good, not corporate greed or unchecked technological power.

1. Societal Harms and Threats to Democracy

WHEREAS, researchers, educators, parents, healthcare professionals and spiritual leaders from many faiths, including Pope Leo XIV, have raised increasing concerns about the harmful effects of excessive and unsupervised technology use, particularly on the well-being, development and human relationships of children and young people; and

WHEREAS, numerous leaders and experts have warned that artificial intelligence must never be allowed to dehumanize or place decisions about war, human dignity and public life in the hands of a powerful few, and have called for strong ethical safeguards and regulations to ensure technology serves humanity rather than exploitation, violence or unchecked corporate and military power; and

WHEREAS, AI systems are already contributing to societal harms through the spread of disinformation, deepfakes, propaganda, algorithmic bias, surveillance, political manipulation and attacks on truth itself, weakening public trust and threatening democratic institutions; and

WHEREAS, AI policy must protect civil rights, racial justice, accessibility, privacy and democratic participation and prevent technology from reproducing or amplifying discrimination and inequality; and

WHEREAS, government procurement and public funding of AI technologies should model the highest standards of transparency, worker participation, safety and accountability; and

WHEREAS, public education and public institutions must not be sacrificed to subsidize or accommodate private technology profits:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for strong federal, state and local regulation of AI technologies to prevent disinformation, protect democratic institutions and hold corporations accountable for harmful, deceptive or discriminatory uses of data and AI; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for balanced, responsible and human-centered use of technology, including AI, that protects well-being, strengthens real human relationships and ensures children, young people and adults are not harmed by excessive, addictive or unsupervised digital technologies and social media platforms; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for democratic oversight, strong ethical standards, regulations, and human accountability in the development and use of artificial intelligence, including opposition to the unrestricted use of AI in warfare, surveillance and systems that undermine human dignity, deepen inequality or distance people from the human consequences of technological decisions; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support establishing an independent, publicly accountable research consortium to study the impacts of AI, screens and technology on students, workers and communities, free from corporate influence or industry funding; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will affirm that technology must strengthen human connection, expand opportunity, protect democracy and improve lives, and that no machine can replace the humanity, expertise, compassion and solidarity that educators and workers bring to their communities every day.

2. Environmental and Climate Harms

WHEREAS, AI technologies consume enormous amounts of electricity, water and natural resources, worsening climate change, straining communities’ infrastructure and disproportionately harming low-income communities and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, unchecked AI expansion risks diverting public resources away from schools, healthcare and community needs in order to subsidize private technology infrastructure and corporate profits:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will demand binding environmental safeguards governing AI infrastructure, including enforceable limits on carbon emissions, water consumption, energy usage and electronic waste associated with AI, data centers and large-scale computing operations; and

RESOLVED, that technology corporations operating AI infrastructure must bear full responsibility for the environmental and public health impacts imposed on surrounding communities, particularly low-income communities and communities of color that disproportionately experience pollution, resource depletion and infrastructure strain; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for aggressive federal and state sustainability standards requiring AI companies and data centers to transition rapidly toward renewable energy, transparent environmental reporting and strong community accountability measures.

3. Workforce Displacement and Worker Protections

WHEREAS, AI-driven automation and algorithmic management threaten workforce displacement, deskilling and worker surveillance, while allowing corporations to replace stable middle-class jobs with precarious, lower-paid work and shifting more wealth upward to billionaires and shareholders; and

WHEREAS, educators, healthcare workers and other professionals are increasingly subjected to technologies that monitor, score and control their work, undermining professional judgment, human relationships and workplace dignity; and

WHEREAS, AI systems used in workplaces often operate without transparency or accountability, leaving workers unaware of how decisions regarding hiring, evaluation, scheduling, discipline, workload or termination are being made; and

WHEREAS, algorithmic surveillance and automated management systems threaten workers’ privacy, civil liberties, freedom of association and workplace democracy; and

WHEREAS, AI-generated content threatens the intellectual property, academic freedom, creative works and professional expertise of educators, writers, artists and other workers whose labor is often used without consent or compensation; and

WHEREAS, workers deserve advance notice, training, bargaining rights and enforceable protections before AI technologies are introduced into workplaces; and

WHEREAS, working people who create society’s wealth deserve to share fairly in the economic gains produced by technological advancement:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support strong collective bargaining rights guaranteeing workers and unions the legally enforceable right to negotiate over the evaluation, procurement, adoption, implementation, monitoring and oversight of AI and related technologies in the workplace, including full transparency regarding data collection and safety, algorithmic decision-making, productivity metrics, surveillance practices and workplace impacts; and

RESOLVED, that no AI system affecting hiring, evaluation, discipline, scheduling, workload, compensation or termination should be implemented without meaningful worker participation, democratic oversight and enforceable protections negotiated through collective bargaining; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will oppose any attempt to use AI to weaken unions, bypass bargaining obligations, misclassify workers or erode due process, workplace safety, privacy or professional autonomy; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will defend educators’ intellectual property rights, academic freedom and professional judgment while supporting educators with training, resources and support to make informed decisions about technology integration within strong public guardrails and democratic oversight; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT opposes adoption, without consultation, of unnecessary, unsafe or untested AI systems and will fight for the right of workers to refuse such adoption of AI systems in their work and workplaces and will defend workers from retaliation for such refusal.

4. Harms to Children and Students

WHEREAS, children and young people face unique harms from excessive screen exposure, addictive technologies, social companion chatbots and AI systems that interfere with healthy development, relationship-building, persistence, emotional growth and civic engagement; and

WHEREAS, students in prekindergarten through second grade learn best through human interaction, play, conversation, movement and hands-on experiences, not through excessive screen exposure or online assessments; and

WHEREAS, student-facing AI in elementary schools risks replacing authentic human connection and developmental learning experiences with automated systems that cannot nurture empathy, trust, curiosity or resilience; and

WHEREAS, schools must remain places where students learn to think critically, work collaboratively, solve real-world problems and participate meaningfully in democracy, not merely adapt to technology created by corporations; and

WHEREAS, educators need high-quality professional development, research-based guidance and democratically accountable institutions to help ensure AI is used responsibly, ethically, and effectively in ways that strengthen teaching and learning rather than undermine them; and

WHEREAS, the absence of comprehensive federal and state regulation governing artificial intelligence, student data privacy, cybersecurity, algorithmic transparency and technology procurement in K-12 education leaves students, educators and families vulnerable to unsafe, unaccountable and exploitative AI systems:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for no screens, including online assessments, for students in prekindergarten through second grade except where necessary to support students with disabilities or other compelling educational needs; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will oppose student-facing AI in elementary schools and support strict guardrails on all student-facing AI technologies, including educator supervision of digital literacy initiatives and a ban, at minimum until age 16, on so-called social companion chatbots that simulate human relationships; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for an education system that prioritizes human relationships, critical thinking, creativity, civic participation and hands-on learning over passive screen-based instruction and automated educational technologies; and

RESOLVED, that schools must remain democratic public institutions centered on human educators and student well-being, not testing laboratories for unregulated technology products or profit-driven experimentation; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will fight to ensure AI serves as a limited and carefully supervised tool that supports educators rather than replacing instructional relationships, professional judgment or authentic student engagement; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will promote the National Academy for AI Instruction as a trusted, educator-led initiative to provide training, resources, research and best practices that help educators thoughtfully integrate AI in ways that protect students, strengthen instruction, preserve professional judgment and uphold the fundamental role of human relationships in education; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will work to develop, promote and implement a rigorous set of gold standards for AI safety, student data privacy, cybersecurity, transparency and accountability in K-12 education, and will advocate that any technology provider unable or unwilling to meet these standards be prohibited from operating in schools or accessing student and educator data; and

RESOLVED, that public investment in education should prioritize smaller class sizes, mental health supports, libraries, arts, career and technical education, experiential learning and community schools before investments in unproven or harmful AI technologies.

5. Economic Inequality and Concentration of Wealth

WHEREAS, the economic gains produced by artificial intelligence are increasingly flowing to a small number of billionaires, investors and technology corporations while working people face rising insecurity, stagnant wages and declining economic power; and

WHEREAS, unchecked AI expansion threatens to deepen existing inequalities by concentrating ownership of data, infrastructure, computing power and wealth into the hands of a few dominant corporations; and

WHEREAS, workers, educators and communities whose labor, knowledge and public institutions help generate AI-driven profits deserve a fair share of the economic benefits created by technological advancement; and

WHEREAS, public resources, taxpayer-funded research and publicly educated workers have played a central role in building the technologies now generating enormous private wealth; and

WHEREAS, economic inequality weakens democracy, destabilizes communities, and undermines educational opportunity and social mobility:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for economic policies ensuring the benefits of AI and technological advancement are broadly shared rather than concentrated among a small number of corporations and wealthy individuals; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support progressive taxation, public investment and strong labor protections to reduce inequality and ensure AI-generated wealth strengthens public education, healthcare, infrastructure, retirement security and community well-being; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support establishing a substantial “tech tax” on major technology corporations, AI-driven profits, large-scale automation systems and data-center operations to ensure corporations benefiting from AI contribute fairly to the public good; and

RESOLVED, that revenues generated through such taxes should be directed toward strengthening public education, workforce retraining and transition programs, pension protections, healthcare, affordable housing, climate mitigation, modern infrastructure and support for workers and communities disrupted by technological change; and

RESOLVED, that corporations should not be permitted to privatize the gains of AI while pushing off the economic, educational and environmental costs onto workers, students, families and taxpayers; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will fight to ensure workers have ownership, bargaining power and democratic participation in decisions surrounding technological deployment and the distribution of productivity gains; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will affirm that technological progress must be measured not by corporate profits or stock valuations, but by whether working families, students and communities experience greater dignity, security, opportunity and democratic participation.

Adopted July 18, 2026