Big Tech and teachers unions are teaming up for training on how to use AI in classrooms

SAN ANTONIO — On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.

After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly, one high school English teacher asked: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”

To help teachers use the technology wisely, their unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America.

Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing millions of dollars for AI training to the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. In exchange, the tech companies have an opportunity to make inroads into schools.

Union President Randi Weingarten said skepticism guided her negotiations, but the tech industry has something schools lack: deep pockets.

“There is no one else who is helping us with this. That’s why we felt we needed to work with the largest corporations in the world,” Weingarten said. “We went to them — they didn’t come to us.”

Weingarten first met with Microsoft Chief Executive Brad Smith in 2023 to discuss a partnership. She later reached out to OpenAI to pursue an “agnostic” approach that means any company’s AI tools could be used in a training session.

Under the arrangement, Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to the union over five years. OpenAI is providing $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources, and Anthropic has offered $500,000.

Tech money will build an AI training hub for teachers

With the money, the union is planning to build an AI training hub in New York City that will offer virtual and in-person workshops for teachers. The goal is to open at least two more hubs and train 400,000 teachers over the next five years.

The National Education Assn., the country’s largest teachers union, announced its own partnership with Microsoft last month. The company has provided a $325,000 grant to help the NEA develop AI training in the form of “microcredentials” — online training open to the union’s 3 million members, said Daaiyah Bilal, NEA’s senior director of education policy. The goal is to train at least 10,000 members this school year.

“We tailored our partnership very surgically,” Bilal said. “We are very mindful of what a technology company stands to gain by spreading information about the products they develop.”

Both unions set similar terms: Educators, not the private funders, would design and lead training that includes AI tools from multiple companies. The intellectual property for the training is owned by the unions and covers safety and privacy concerns, alongside AI skills.

The Trump administration has encouraged the private investment, recently creating an AI Education Task Force as part of an effort to achieve “global dominance in artificial intelligence.” The federal government urged tech companies and other organizations to foot the bill. So far, more than 100 companies have signed up.

Several recent studies have found that AI use in schools is rapidly increasing but training and guidance are lagging.

The industry offers resources that can help scale AI literacy efforts quickly. But educators should ensure any partnership focuses on what’s best for teachers and students, said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

“These are private initiatives, and they are run by companies that have a stake,” Lake said.

Microsoft’s Smith agrees that teachers should have a “healthy dose of skepticism” about the role of tech companies.

“While it’s easy to see the benefits right now, we should always be mindful of the potential for unintended consequences,” Smith said in an interview, pointing to concerns such as AI’s possible effect on critical thinking. “We have to be careful. It’s early days.”

Teachers see new possibilities

At the San Antonio training for the American Federation of Teachers, about 50 educators turned out. The day started with a pep talk.

“We all know, when we talk about AI, teachers say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,’” trainer Kathleen Torregrossa told the room. “But we are preparing kids for the future. That is our primary job. And AI, like it or not, is part of our world.”

Attendees generated lesson plans using ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot and two AI tools designed for schools, Khanmingo and Colorín Colorado.

“It can save you so much time,” said Gabriela Aguirre, a first-grade dual-language teacher. She walked away with a plan to use AI tools to make illustrated flashcards in English and Spanish to teach vocabulary.

Middle school teacher Celeste Simone said there is no turning back to how she taught before.

As a teacher for English-language learners, Simone can now ask AI tools to generate pictures alongside vocabulary words and create illustrated storybooks that use students’ names as characters. She can take a difficult reading passage and ask a chatbot to translate it into Spanish, Pashto or other languages. And she can ask AI to rewrite difficult passages at any grade level to match her students’ reading levels. All in a matter of seconds.

“I can give my students access to things that never existed before,” Simone said. “As a teacher, once you’ve used it and see how helpful it is, I don’t think I could go back to the way I did things before.”

Gecker writes for the Associated Press.