JEFFERSON, N.C. (AP) — First lady Melania Trump visited an elementary school in northwestern North Carolina Tuesday, where she said the U.S. must lead on artificial intelligence as she spoke with elementary school students, teachers and staff about how they're using technology and AI in the classroom.
Her trip to Ashe County on Tuesday came as tech and political leaders debate about how best to regulate AI. Prominent tech leaders have been warning
about the dangers of the technology and calling for more oversight, while President Donald Trump on Monday angrily dismissed the idea that more limits are needed, calling it a “hoax.”
Many parents have also expressed alarm about schools' widespread adoption of tablets with access to sites like YouTube even in classrooms with the youngest students.
The first lady visited Mountain View Elementary School in rural Jefferson, which has a focus on using AI, robotics and engineering.
Asked by a reporter about the potential of AI and the growing warnings about it, the first lady said students must learn it for the U.S. to be a global leader.
“I think they need to learn we need to lead,” she said. “Of course they need to be vigilant as well. But this is our future. And we need to guide them and teach them what is available. If not, they will stay behind. And we need to be the first, in the United States, to lead."
The first lady opened her trip by recognizing the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, which kept students out of school for more than 30 days as the community worked to recover. Mountain View's neighborhood flooded and the school was used as an emergency childcare center and later a community distribution site for supplies.
“Your story is incredible,” she told several hundred students, teachers and administrators sitting on the gymnasium floor and bleachers. “North Carolina is the definition of resilience. Toughness in times of adversity is ingrained in the Tar Heel State’s character.”
The first lady was warmly welcomed at the school. A wall of the gym was decorated with a hand-painted banner with purple print that read, “Welcome to Ashe County 1st Lady Melania Trump!” A digital screen in a school hallway welcomed the first lady with cartoon images of a boy and girl waving American flags.
After her remarks, she visited a fifth grade science classroom where she sat with students while a teacher walked them through an experiment simulating pressure changes in the human chest cavity. The students then used AI to generate a video of their model using tablets.
As she observed the lesson, an 11-year-old asked if he could give the first lady a hug. They hugged several times.
She later spent time in the school's media center, where she sat with students building chatbots to research potential future careers and watched them use 3D printers. She joined in as they manipulated robotic arms that buzzed and whirred in the background.
“You can do anything. Anything is possible," she told them. “The sky is the limit, right? Just never give up.”
She also announced that her Be Best initiative would be helping to provide 1,500 students in Ashe County with subscriptions to StudyFetch, an AI learning platform, and that Mountain View Elementary and other schools in the district would be receiving 100 Jetson Nano Developer Kits — small computers for running AI applications.
“Maybe one of you will create the next great robot," she said in her remarks. “And if you do, make sure you bring it to the White House to show me.”
The first lady made headlines earlier this year when she walked into a White House event with a humanoid robot at a summit she hosted with other first spouses about empowering children with technology.
Last September, at a meeting of a White House task force on AI in education, she noted that the technology was boosting economic growth but also expressed some caution.
“As leaders and parents, we must manage AI’s growth responsibly," she said at last year's event. “During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering, but with watchful guidance.”
Technology in education is one of the first lady's signature issues, along with advocacy for foster children, and lobbying Congress to pass the “Take It Down Act” making revenge porn a crime.
It’s the first lady’s fourth trip to North Carolina since 2025. She accompanied the president to meet families affected by Hurricane Helene at the beginning of his term, and subsequently spent time with military families in other parts of the state.
The state is home to one of the most closely watched Senate races of the November midterm elections, pitting Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, against Democrat Roy Cooper, a former governor. The president is traveling to Gastonia in the southern part of the state on Wednesday for a rally for Whatley.
___ Colvin reported from New York.
