First lady Melania Trump emphasized the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence on Thursday, urging the administration to educate the next generation of students on how to use the technology.
“We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children. Cars now steer themselves through our cities, robots hold steady hands in the operating room, and drones are redefining the future of war,” Trump said in her opening remarks at the second meeting of the White House Task Force on AI.
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“Inventions of first-generation humanoids, factory automation, and autonomous vehicles have surged from private sector investment. Every one of these advancements is powered by AI,” she continued. “The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction.”
Several members of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet, who are also part of the AI task force, attended the event, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
“It is such a valuable tool, and we are certainly going to do our best to utilize it at the Department of Education,” McMahon said of AI technology. “We’re looking at our work in three AI areas. We are supporting current grantees, we are prioritizing future investments, and we’re integrating AI in our own workforce at the department.”
Wright briefly discussed his work to make sure the United States has the electricity production to meet AI demands.
“At its essence, artificial intelligence takes electricity and turns it into intelligence, empowering Americans,” Wright said. “At the Department of Energy, my biggest focus, seven days a week, is how to grow our supply of electricity.”
“We will not win AI if we don’t massively grow our electricity production,” he said.
Business and technology leaders who have championed AI also attended the meeting and offered remarks, including Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet; Cameron Wilson, president of Code.org; and Arvind Krishna, CEO and chairman of IBM. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also attended the task force meeting but did not give remarks.
The event followed the first lady’s launch of the Presidential AI Challenge last week. The challenge invites students nationwide, from kindergarten through 12th grade, to create projects using AI that solve real-world problems.
Microsoft announced new commitments to support the AI challenge on Thursday at the task force meeting. The commitments include a 12-month free trial to Microsoft 365 Personal for every college student in the U.S., funding $1.25 million in prizes for the Presidential AI Challenge through Microsoft Elevate, and unlocking free access to LinkedIn Learning courses for teachers and students.
Microsoft Elevate will also provide no-cost AI training and certifications to community college students through partnerships with the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Applied AI Consortium.
After the task force meeting, Kim Majerus, Amazon’s vice president of global education, discussed with reporters how AI could help educators teach students.
“When we think about the opportunity that they have is to manage students throughout the course of the day. It’s a heavy load for an educator,” Majerus said. “So what we like to think about is, what are we doing to help support them before? What are we helping them do during class? And how are we helping those students after?”
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“We’re going to help those educators understand how they can use technology to advance and improve education,” Majerus continued.
The president is also set to host tech leaders at the White House on Thursday evening, with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and OpenAI founder Sam Altman among the attendees. Notably, X owner Elon Musk will not be in attendance.