Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are investing millions to train teachers how to use AI

As schools and teachers scramble to figure out whether and how to implement AI in the classroom, three leading tech companies are investing in a new training program for educators. (skynesher/E+/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

New York — A group of leading tech companies is teaming up with two teachers’ unions to train 400,000 kindergarten through 12th grade teachers in artificial intelligence over the next five years.

The National Academy of AI Instruction, announced on Tuesday, is a US$23 million initiative backed by Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, the national American Federation of Teachers and New York-based United Federation of Teachers. As part of the effort, the group says it will develop AI training curriculum for teachers that can be distributed online and at an in-person campus in New York City.

The announcement comes as schools, teachers and parents grapple with whether and how AI should be used in the classroom. Educators want to make sure students know how to use a technology that’s already transforming workplaces, while teachers can use AI to automate some tasks and spend more time engaging with students. But AI also raises ethical and practical questions, which often boil down to: If kids use AI to assist with schoolwork and teachers use AI to help with lesson planning or grading papers, where is the line between advancing student learning versus hindering it?

Some schools have prohibited the use of AI in classrooms, while others have embraced it. In New York City, the education department banned the use of ChatGPT from school devices and networks in 2023, before reversing course months later and developing an AI policy lab to explore the technology’s potential.

The new academy hopes to create a national model for how schools and teachers can integrate AI into their curriculum and teaching processes, without adding to the administrative work that so often burdens educators.

“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,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “The academy is a place where educators and school staff will learn about AI—not just how it works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically.”

The program will include workshops, online courses and in-person trainings designed by AI experts and educators, and instruction will begin this fall. Microsoft is set to invest $12.5 million in the training effort over the next five years, and OpenAI will contribute $10 million — $2 million of which will be in in-kind resources such as computing access. Anthropic plans to invest $500,000 in the project’s first year and may spend more over time.

The tech companies involved also stand to benefit by gaining feedback from teachers and potentially getting their AI tools in the hands of educators and students around the country. Similar educational partnerships have been a boon to tech companies in the past — Google Chromebooks, for example, are widely used in part because of their popularity in classrooms.

Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, told CNN at the program’s launch event in New York City on Tuesday that the trainings will be a mix of general information on how AI systems work and specific instruction on tools from Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic. There’s also potential for new AI products to be developed by or in partnership with the teachers.

“How can we make sure that, in the K-12 context, that we’re equipping those kids, those students, with the skills that they’re going to need to be able to succeed in what we think of as the intelligence age?” Lehane said during the event. “And you can’t do that unless it’s actually given to the teachers to do that work.”

By Clare Duffy.