President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Wednesday to develop AI education in K-12 schools and provide students with an increasingly AI-centric workforce.
The overall goal of the new directive is to “ensure that the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution,” the press release said. The policy aims to “promote AI literacy and proficiency among K-12 students” while also training educators so they can integrate AI education into the curriculum.
The move may be a response to China’s recent developments. In March, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced that it would provide AI courses for primary and middle school students. Starting from September, Chinese students will need to take eight hours of AI courses each year. Last week, Reuters reported that China’s Ministry of Education’s plan to “integrate artificial intelligence (AI) applications into teaching work, textbooks and school curriculum.”
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The president’s executive order established an AI education task force that includes members of a variety of federal agencies, including directors of agriculture, labor, energy, education, National Science Foundation and special counsel for AI & Crypto.
China’s rapid development in AI threatens the United States’ previous comfort position at the top of the AI industry, largely due to the introduction of DeepSeek. The AI model produced by the Chinese company has the same functionality as the OpenAI inference model, and its R1 model is reportedly costly. DeepSeek shocked the US tech stocks and prompted President Trump to say at the time: “The release of DeepSeek, the AI of Chinese companies should be a wake-up call for our industry, and we need to focus on competition with lasers to win.”
The executive order is divided into four barrels: prioritizing students’ AI education, providing educators with AI professional development, growing and developing “AI-related registered apprenticeships” with related careers and industries, and “Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenges”.
The challenge will focus on “student and educator achievements” from all ages and across the geographic area. Please note that as required by the Executive Order within the next 90 days.
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