WASHINGTON, D.C. — Randi Weingarten, president of one of America’s most powerful teachers unions, strongly pushed back Thursday on first lady Melania Trump’s comments that humanoid robot teachers could soon become central to children’s education.
After appearing with a humanoid robot during an AI education summit Wednesday, Trump said that a humanoid robot educator “will provide a personalized experience, adaptive to the needs of each student” so “our children will develop deeper critical thinking and independent reasoning abilities.”
Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, delivered the sharp rebuke during Thursday’s inaugural Workers First AI Summit. Hosted by the AFL-CIO, the convening of labor representatives and civil society organizations aimed to bring together workers across industries to build a unified front against AI’s unchecked growth and its growing impact on American workers. “What she did yesterday was every parent’s nightmare,” Weingarten said during a session exploring the policies that should protect workers’ rights in the midst of fast-moving AI development.
“This is exactly what Big Tech wants to create: a sense of a society that is being led by and taught by robots, displacing every bit of all of who we are, starting with education,” she said.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Weingarten argued that AI is a tool that requires human oversight and that education and decision-making should not be delegated to the technology. “The future is here,” she said. “What are we going to do to make sure that AI is a tool? That the human beings are in charge, not the tool?”
The role of AI in education is a key focus for the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union in the United States. In July, the union launched a National Academy for AI Instruction in partnership with leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The academy provides resources and hosts trainings to help educators learn about AI and integrate AI tools into their classrooms.
“The tech billionaires tried to get technology 20 years ago to replace teachers, now they’re trying to get AI to replace teachers,” Weingarten told NBC News on the sidelines of the conference.
“It completely misunderstands not only what American education is all about, but what kids really need,” she added, highlighting that conservative groups like Moms for Liberty have also recently objected to the growing amount of time students spend on computers and screens in the classroom.
For Weingarten, Melania Trump’s comments about the potential for humanoid robots to supplant or supplement human instruction completely ignores the importance of human interaction in education. “We need human beings to actually help other human beings in the teaching and learning process. This is not about memorization. This is not about becoming an automaton,” Weingarten said.
“This was either completely not caring about kids or completely being in the pocket of the billionaire tech companies,” she added. “They’re both dead wrong, and fundamentally it’s terrible for our society.”