Two new national plans promise to overhaul classrooms with AI. Here’s how the US and China differ – and overlap. From the Future of Being Human Substack.
Hot on the heels of China’s plans to embed AI in all levels of teaching and education, the US has launched a wide-ranging executive order on Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. Both recognize that early investment in AI and education is critical to future economic leadership and success. Yet despite some broad areas of alignment, the two strategies diverge on aims, ambitions, and approaches.
In the US, the just-released Executive Order on Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth lays out plans to deeply embed AI learning, education, and use, within the K-12 system. In part it starts to rebuild from a systematic dismantling of AI-focused initiatives from the previous administration — including the 2023 Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence which was rescinded by the Trump Administration in January. But it also responds to a growing awareness that the US cannot afford not to invest in the skills, understanding and innovation that will underpin global relevance and influence in an AI-driven future.
And much of this awareness stems from the breakneck speed at which China is preparing for this selfsame future.
Just last week it was reported that China is setting out to integrate artificial intelligence applications into teaching, textbooks, and the (largely centralized) school curriculum, as it moves to overhaul education in an age of AI. As with the US, there’s a clear focus on long term global economic influence and impact. But China’s approach also differs from that being taken by the US in ways that reflect different social and cultural perspectives and goals.
I’ve attached a detailed comparison of the two approaches being taken to AI in education at the bottom of this article.1 It’s too long to include directly, but is well worth reading if you are interested in an in-depth analysis of how policy approaches align and converge around AI in K-12 education in particular, and what this might mean for the future.
However I did want to reflect on some of more salient points in comparing emerging strategies and policies on AI in K-12 education the US and China …