Day of AI and MIT RAISE Launch National Movement to Empower Students and Educators in the AI Age
September 25, 2025
Summary
“Responsible AI for America’s Youth” emphasizes students and educators in the AI discussion within schools through an accessible curriculum, comprehensive training for all U.S. teachers, and national student competitions leading to an AI youth festival at MIT next summer.
Kicking Off a National Movement
Education leaders, including Day of AI and MIT RAISE, today announced the launch of Responsible AI for America’s Youth, a bold new national movement to ensure every child in the United States has the opportunity to become a responsible and confident user of artificial intelligence (AI). This effort puts students and educators at the center of shaping how AI is brought into schools, elevating their voices in the national conversation.
Responsible AI for America’s Youth combines free and comprehensive curriculum, an extensive schedule of professional development workshops for all U.S. K-12 educators, and a series of national and local events over the coming year to help students succeed in the AI era. The campaign kicks off on October 7, 2025, and will ultimately build toward America’s Youth AI Festival, held on July 17–19, 2026. During this event, 250 students and teachers from across the country will travel to Boston for an AI summit at MIT and other local institutions, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary. Highlights of the festival will include:
Two high school students, one selected from each state, will gather at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate to draft a Student AI Bill of Rights.
Leading student-artists selected from nationwide competitions in visual and performing arts, with winners featured in events at MIT’s Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building and the MIT Media Lab.
An “AI for A Better World” competition where top student groups present their visions for how AI can solve societal problems to a panel led by Professor Cynthia Breazeal, the Director of MIT RAISE, who was recently named to the 2025 Time100 AI list of the 100 most influential people in AI.
“AI is changing everything. Our kids need the skills to harness its power and understand its limits,” said Jeffrey Riley, Executive Director of Day of AI and former Commissioner of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “This is about giving every student, no matter where they live or what they are passionate about, a voice in shaping how AI literacy is taught in their schools and how to use it responsibly. The AI revolution is this generation’s defining moment. The future belongs to our kids, and it’s on us as educators, parents, and business and community leaders to get it right.”
“This represents a new chapter in preparing students not only to use AI but to shape its future responsibly,” said Cynthia Breazeal, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of Day of AI in addition to her role as Director of MIT RAISE. “By tying AI literacy to critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and civic responsibility, we are giving students the tools they need to lead in this uncharted territory. Just as importantly, we are equipping educators with the confidence and resources to guide them as they serve as pioneers of this field themselves. This is a cultural movement that unites rigorous research with the energy of future generations.”
Building Responsible AI Literacy Nationwide with a Team of Best-In-Class Partners
To drive the Responsible AI for America’s Youth movement, Day of AI is providing free, engaging AI literacy lessons for K–12 students, supported by a complete set of educator guides, resources, and videos for easy implementation in classrooms and afterschool programs. More than two million students worldwide have already benefited from Day of AI’s curriculum, showing measurable gains in AI understanding and agency. To support teachers, Day of AI will run hundreds of free professional development workshops during the 2025–26 school year, including Demystifying AI and Bringing AI Literacy to Your Classroom. These virtual sessions begin in October 2025 and will be offered up to 20 times per week, making this the most extensive offering of its kind.
Prominent supporters of this campaign include the Vertex Foundation, the Lynch Foundation, the Mathworks, and the award-winning performance artist will.i.am’s i.am/Angel Foundation; Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown’s 7uice Foundation; the Dr. Ibrahim El-Hefni Technical Training Foundation; Common Sense Media; and Latinos for Education.
For more information, to access the curriculum, or to register for professional development workshops, visit dayofaiusa.org.
About the Organizations
Day of AI | Started in 2021 through MIT’s RAISE (“Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education”) initiative, Day of AI enables K-12 students, families, and educators to thrive in the age of AI. Day of AI became a stand-alone nonprofit in 2024, while still working closely with MIT’s best-in-class team of researchers. Day of AI’s mission is to equip educators around the planet with the knowledge and tools to integrate AI responsibly into their classrooms, with a free curriculum that can be accessed at dayofai.org.
MIT RAISE | The MIT RAISE Initiative (raise.mit.edu) empowers everyone to use AI responsibly, authentically, and with impact. Its mission is to advance science and innovation of AI-enabled technologies, experiences, and global programs to deepen learning, spark creativity, and empower everyone to make a better world with AI.