Why AI Education Is the Key to Global Competitiveness
Just a few months ago, 450 CEOs from across numerous sectors of American industry called on states to make CS and AI education a requirement for every student in the US. Only 12 states do so today. These, and other leaders, have recognized AI education is the global competitiveness issue of our time. We owe it to students to provide an education system that meets the moment. Students need to learn how AI works, the opportunities it affords, its limits and risks, and the underlying computer science concepts driving it. Simply learning to use AI won’t be enough. We need to spark their curiosity and build their confidence so they can be agile as AI shapes our workforce and society. Both the Presidential AI Challenge and the Executive Order Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth recognize AI Education is a global competitiveness issue and will catalyze state-led efforts to modernize education.
Since Code.org’s founding 12 years ago, we’ve changed the global education system by bringing CS, and now AI education, to 100M students and policy reform across all 50 states. We are the global leader in ensuring students, teachers, administrators and parents are part of this global education movement.
As part of the AI Executive Order we are committing to evolving and expanding this movement by:
Engaging 25M learners, including students, teachers AND parents, in the Hour of AI this school year
Partnering with 25 states during the next three years to build and promote AI pathways, AI Standards, and the AI Education Act
Developing and scaling a new free, open source high school course focused on AI, reaching 400,000 US high school students annually by school year ’28
Providing free, open source AI+CS learning for 9M US K-8 students annually by school year ‘28
We have always acted with a broad community of partners, including teachers and parents, leaders across all levels of government, and our lead partners of Microsoft, Google and Amazon as well as numerous other CEOs. This broad coalition of leaders has been key to our success. With AI Education we have another opportunity to reinforce and expand these partnerships. Please join us in bringing AI Education to the next 100M students in the next decade at Code.org.