Microsoft, Openai joins forces with AFT to train teachers on AI

Large technological companies that create artificial intelligence products – notably Anthropic, Microsoft and Openai – combine with the American teachers' federation for Provide free training for AI teachers.

Companies have promised 23 million dollars combined over five years for effort, including the creation of a national ACAM for AI instruction, a brick and mortar installation in New York. The installation will start teaching with New York educators this fall, then will develop on a national scale.

The partnership will offer teachers continuing education credits, skills securities and certifications, workshops, online courses and training sessions. It will also provide continuous support and resources to keep educators in the loop on the latest IA advances. The Academy will use the comments of educators and “real experiences in class” to modify and improve its work.

In the end, the initiative plans to support 400,000 educators, according to AFT, a union of 1.8 million members.

“Teachers are faced with enormous challenges, including navigation on wisely, ethical and safe AI,” said Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, at an event held at the Syndicat's Affilié de New York affiliate, the united and online teacher federation.

When a powerful version of Open Ai's chatgpt appeared in 2022, “we knew that it would fundamentally change our world,” said Weingarten. “The question was whether we were continuing it or if we were trying to exploit it?”

The initiative will help educators better understand how technology can be used for teaching and learning, exploring the problems related to student security and privacy, and to find how to help their students prepare for an economy in which AI tools will be widely used, Weingarten said.

The approach will keep teachers – not technology – at the center of education, she added. “Human beings, not the machine, are in charge of education, and that the tool should be the one used by educators, by the public, by children, not the reverse,” said Weingarten.

Are promises sufficient to obtain a real traction on AI training?

The rear advertisement comes in the heels of a Commitment sponsored by the White House Signed by 68 companies and non -profit organizations – including two of the companies in partnership with AFT: Microsoft and Openai – to support the teaching of AI skills in schools.

Organizations promise to “provide resources that promote early interest in AI technology, Promote the literacy of AI And competence, and allow complete training on AI for educators, “according to a press release published by the Trump administration. (See the complete declaration and the list of participating organizations here.)

More specifically, organizations have declared that they would offer “resources” in the form of “financing, subsidies, educational equipment and studies, technology and tools, labor development and / or technical expertise resources”.

The commitment does not include the details, such as the amount of money that an organization could provide and for which, if educational equipment would be sold to families or school districts for lucrative purposes or offered free of charge, and how many hours could devote to the supply of technological know-how to educators.

The commitment does not say whether companies will work directly with public school districts, private schools or families at the house of their children.

Though is nice to see so many organizations Publicly Express Interest in helping Children and Educators Navigate Ai, It Would Beter to See “Fewer Pledges and More Proactive Action (With Companies Saying) ‘Here's What We're Going to Do,' and the Federal Government Checking to Ensure That they aren't making false promise about the safety or efficient product, Said Amelia Vance, the President of the Public Interest Privacy Center, a Nonprofit Organization That Aims to Help Educators Safeguard Confidentiality of Students.

The funding that Anthropic, Openai and Microsoft is committed to the AFT initiative is more significant – there is a clear amount attached to it, said Vance.

“It's nice to see money (put to) that,” said Vance. But she also wants to see companies “intensify and not exaggerate what AI can and cannot do”.

And she hopes that the IA training that teachers receive thanks to the initiative clearly indicates that there are many ways that educators can use AI tools without violating the confidentiality of students' data. For example, instead of saying: “I need a Individual learning progam For Bill Johnson, a 5th year student with dyslexia “could say” please send five IEP reading objectives for a 5th year student with Dyslexia, “said Vance.

The commitment of the White House and AFT's partnerships are based on a global trend towards a more professional development in AI.

In the past school year, an increasing number of districts began to train teachers at AI or encourage them to experiment with technology, according to research. The number of districts that have trained teachers to a generative AI have more than doubled from 2025 to 2025, According to an analysis of the research company and politics Rand Corp., published this spring.

In the fall of 2025, 48% of the districts said they had trained teachers to use AI – up to 23% in the fall of 2025. If the districts follow their plans for the current school year, almost three -quarters will have followed AI training to educators by fall 2025, predicts Rand.