The American Federation of Teachers has partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to create a $23 million initiative for AI training and software for educators. The program, starting in New York City and expanding nationally, targets K-12 teachers and is voluntary. The focus includes using AI for lesson planning, summarizing texts, and creating assessments. While some educators see potential benefits, others express skepticism, fearing the partnership could undermine educational integrity. Concerns remain over unaddressed issues related to AI integration in classrooms.
"This tool could truly be a great gift to the children of this country and to education overall," Mulgrew said. "But we're not going to get there unless it's driven by the people doing the work in the most important place in education, which is the classroom."
Some teachers said they are skeptical about the initiative. Jia Lee, a special education teacher at the Earth School in the East Village, likened the arrangement to 'letting the fox in the henhouse' and said she was 'horrified' to see the union linking arms with the tech companies.
"I think a lot of educators would say we're not anti-AI, we just have concerns about a lot of things that have not been explained or researched yet," Lee said.
The initiative is aimed at K-12 teachers, is voluntary and focuses on tasks like lesson planning, according to the union and companies. AI can summarize texts and create worksheets and assessments.
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