--- title: The Role of Unions in Training for AI at Scale description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7301906/the-role-of-unions-in-training-for-ai-at-scale/ author: Jacob Clemente article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-07-13T11:30:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-28T07:07:31.712Z article:section: Charter og:title: The Role of Unions in Training for AI at Scale og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jacob Clemente](https://time.com/author/jacob-clemente/) Senior Reporter, AI & Work Jul 13, 2025 11:30 AM UTC  Art: Charter  by [Jacob Clemente](https://time.com/author/jacob-clemente/) Senior Reporter, AI & Work Jul 13, 2025 11:30 AM UTC The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union this week [announced](https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-launch-national-academy-ai-instruction-microsoft-openai-anthropic-and-united) the creation of the National Academy for AI Instruction, a program to provide free AI training to its members. The Academy will receive $23 million in funding from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Instruction will start this fall at the headquarters of United Federation of Teachers in New York City, and the AFT plans to expand the training program nationally over time. An AFT representative told Charter that the instruction isn’t just about training teachers how to use AI tools in the abstract. Rather, it’s focused on how teachers can amplify their expertise and improve educational methods with these tools. They gave us the example of a teacher learning how to use an AI tool to tailor a lesson to match a student’s interests. If you know the student likes soccer, they explained, you might have the tool introduce a soccer theme into the lesson as a way to increase engagement. Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). The training will also include guidance on how to use the tools safely and ethically, which includes everything from what information you can give a chatbot to how teachers can use AI in a way that doesn’t create distance between them and their students, the representative added. Venture capitalist [Roy Bahat](https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/), who first proposed the idea for the Academy and will join its board, [wrote on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/roybahat%5Fin-a-world-with-more-ai-what-will-it-take-activity-7348358108810768386-stYv/?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=member%5Fios&rcm=ACoAAAClK3UBQJtSMgIJhV3hIrWcXy81ILTqBjk) that “if we can figure out how teachers should teach with and about AI, we can affect the lives of millions of educators, and millions and millions of young people. And if we can figure out how to train teachers on using AI, maybe we can figure it out for other occupations.” This partnership between a labor organization and some of the biggest players in AI is significant in part because of its scale. Getting AI training right for workers at one company is challenging enough—training hundreds of thousands of teachers, who have already seen their profession transform because of AI, is a different beast. It will also be interesting to see whether its approach is different toward worker voice and human empowerment in the age of AI, given that the initiative is led by organized labor rather than a corporate, government, or academic body. We spoke with Bahat to learn more about the National Academy for AI Instruction and its goals. (Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, which was a Charter investor prior to our sale.) Here are highlights from that conversation, edited for length and clarity: **What was the main idea behind creating the National Academy for AI Instruction?** The idea is a center of excellence that can give teachers the opportunity to learn how to teach with AI and how to teach about AI. They'll have a wide range of tools from a range of companies that build AI, and there will be a mix of in-person and virtual programming so that they can reach teachers all around the country. **If we were to talk in five years, what would need to happen for you to think about this as a success?** The first thing is just scale. While it's great that every school has a few teachers who are experimenting aggressively and lots of folks who are trying to figure out what to do, ultimately it needs to be a widespread expectation that every teacher has available to them the ability to get smart on the use of technology. So one thing is scale. There are some specific numbers in the press release. \[**Editor’s note:** The [press release](https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-launch-national-academy-ai-instruction-microsoft-openai-anthropic-and-united) states that “over five years, the program aims to support 400,000 educators—approximately 10%of the US teaching workforce—reaching more than 7.2 million students.”\] The second thing is wisdom. When I say wisdom, I mean that there is an effective, ethical, safe set of practices around everything from how students should improve by using AI and when they shouldn't. Eventually develop practices around when to use the tools and when not to, and in what ways to use them and in what ways not to. To me, the two major things are scale and wisdom. **What are you hoping other organizations and industries take from this approach?** The critical thing here is that it was led by a worker organization. Randi \[Weingarten, president of the AFT\] and the AFT really drove this process. So my hope is that what others take from this is that worker organizations can deliver the future to their members and that it helps if they do it in partnership with industry. --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: How to Lead Amid the Uncertainty of AI](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7315114/how-to-lead-amid-the-uncertainty-of-ai/)  ### How to Lead Amid the Uncertainty of AI [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7315114/how-to-lead-amid-the-uncertainty-of-ai/) [Open article: The case for a ‘chief work officer’](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7290350/chief-work-officer/)  ### The case for a ‘chief work officer’ [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7290350/chief-work-officer/) [Open article: LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman Believes AI Agents Will Be an Essential Part of How We Work](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7212218/reid-hoffman-ai-superagency-linkedin/)  ### LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman Believes AI Agents Will Be an Essential Part of How We Work [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7212218/reid-hoffman-ai-superagency-linkedin/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7301906/the-role-of-unions-in-training-for-ai-at-scale/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7301906/the-role-of-unions-in-training-for-ai-at-scale/"},"headline":"The Role of Unions in Training for AI at Scale","datePublished":"2025-07-13T11:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-28T07:07:31.712Z","description":"VC Roy Bahat on a new alliance between the American Federation of Teachers and AI companies including OpenAI aims at cracking some of the biggest challenges around training and AI implementation.","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7301906/the-role-of-unions-in-training-for-ai-at-scale/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10956b9885da6773/6998c83c47fe51c94255be4e/charter-bahat2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Clemente","jobTitle":"Senior Reporter, AI & Work","url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-clemente/"}],"articleSection":"Charter","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10956b9885da6773/6998c83c47fe51c94255be4e/charter-bahat2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-bahat2","caption":"An illustration featuring a headshot of Roy Bahat.","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7301906/the-role-of-unions-in-training-for-ai-at-scale/","name":"The Role of Unions in Training for AI at Scale"}}]}] ```