Computer literacy. Internet literacy. Social media literacy. Mobile literacy. Virtual reality literacy.
Every few years, the tech industry introduces a new kind of product, then prods schools to teach millions of students how to use it.
The pitch to train schoolchildren on the latest tech has stayed roughly the same since the introduction of personal computers in the late 1970s: improved learning and better career prospects. Since then, campaigns for a host of new tech literacies have come and gone – even as some of the promises failed to materialise.
Now tech giants like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are urging schools to teach the latest topic: AI literacy.
Here’s what to know.
What is AI literacy?
The latest school tech lessons often revolve around chatbots, which can produce human-sounding writing, realistic-looking videos and reams of computer code.
Some schools are teaching students to prompt chatbots like Google’s Gemini and examine the information they produce. Some lessons ask students to study the associated societal risks, like chatbot misinformation or biased results. Some schools are also encouraging students to use AI to create their own apps.
The push for AI education in schools is not new. In 2016, with AI-powered appliances like robotic vacuum cleaners gaining popularity, researchers in Austria proposed that schools teach AI concepts to students starting in kindergarten.
A few years later, a group of academics in the United States came up with an AI education framework for schools to teach students technical concepts and AI ethics.
Now, some schools are racing to teach students to assess and use chatbots, the latest popular form of AI.
What’s behind the AI push in schools?
Tech boosters say it’s urgent for schools to train students on chatbots to help with learning, prepare young people for the job demands of an “AI-driven future” and help boost U.S. economic growth.
Last April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth.” It called on schools to “integrate the fundamentals of AI into all subject areas,” starting in kindergarten.
In July, Microsoft announced a US$4bil (RM15bil) cash and technology effort to spur educational institutions to teach “AI skilling.” In September, Google promised US$1bil (RM3bil) in AI training, including providing the company’s Gemini tools to “every high school in America.”
This month, the US Labor Department issued AI education guidelines to ensure “all American workers are able to share in the prosperity that AI will create for our economy.” Among the foundational skills for students, the agency said: learning how to create clear chatbot prompts and check the answers for accuracy.
Which other groups are shaping AI education?
Some researchers and nonprofit groups are backing broader education efforts covering an array of related societal issues. Among them, the Kapor Center, a nonprofit in Oakland, California, recommends that students assess AI safety risks and examine tech industry power dynamics, including the companies profiting most from AI.
These experts are urging schools to help students gain a technical understanding of AI as well as skills to investigate the consequences of the latest technologies.
The Computer Science Teachers Association, a nonprofit with nearly 10,000 teachers as members, recently revised its national learning standards to include a new proposed student skill: identifying how products like AI prioritise different values, such as promoting user engagement over accuracy or human civility.
“Students need to be able to make informed decisions about when and how AI tools are used – both in their own work and also when AI is used on them, as citizens who are entering a world where more and more decisions about their lives will be made by machines,” said Jake Baskin, the executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association.
What have we learned from past tech literacy campaigns?
Take social media literacy. The programs have helped some young people more easily identify certain online hazards. But tech literacy efforts are generally not designed to curb underlying risks like predators and sextortion, problems that regulators and lawmakers have long pressed tech companies to address.
In 2017, Google introduced a free digital citizenship curriculum called Be Internet Awesome. The gamelike lessons, featuring colourful virtual worlds like Reality River, asked students to distinguish between facts and misinformation or to make choices about how they shared their personal information online.
The intent was to help students become more alert, safer and kinder online. More than 100 million children have since tried the lessons, according to a Google blog post in 2024.
But a study of the digital citizenship game, involving more than 1,000 fourth to sixth graders, found mixed results.
Students who were randomly assigned to the Google lessons showed better knowledge of concepts like “catfishing” and approaches to handling online problems like mean behaviour, according to the study, which was published in 2023 in Contemporary School Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal.
The Google lessons, however, did not reduce mean online behaviors like cyberbullying or improve children’s online kindness or their data privacy practices, the study said.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
