AFT, UFT, and Microsoft Establish National AI Safety Privacy Standard for Schools
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and Microsoft have jointly announced a 'National AI Safety & Privacy Standard' for schools. This agreement, reached after extensive negotiations and in the absence of comprehensive federal and state regulations on artificial intelligence in educational settings, aims to provide legally enforceable protections for students, families, and educators. Key provisions of the standard include prohibiting tech companies from using student data to train AI models, ensuring students cannot be tracked, mandating human oversight for AI-driven decisions, and requiring companies to offer transparent, plain-language explanations of how their AI tools function. U.S. school districts can integrate these protections directly into their Microsoft customer agreements, making them contractually binding. AFT President Randi Weingarten emphasized the necessity of this 'iron-clad privacy agreement' due to the lack of federal action, highlighting i...
