First Lady Melania Trump Promotes AI Literacy and Creativity Initiative for Students

Fostering the Future Together is a global coalition created by First Lady Melania Trump to coordinate how countries support children in a rapidly changing, tech‑driven world. It is structured as:

• A coalition of nations, with members being the spouses (or equivalent representatives) of heads of government.
• A mission to “ensure that every child can flourish in the digital era” by improving children’s well‑being through education, innovation, and technology.
• Initial objectives that include: (1) prioritizing children’s personal development; (2) unifying efforts around children, technology, and education; (3) collaborating with the private sector to expand access to new education technologies such as AI, robotics, and blockchain; and (4) sharing solutions about both the benefits and risks of AI.
• Implementation carried out locally in each member’s own country, with members expected to advance these goals at home.

The article you read notes that Melania Trump will host the coalition’s inaugural meeting at the White House in spring 2026, following its launch at the 2025 UN General Assembly session.

Zoom’s role is mainly to provide the platform, programming, and some funding and partnerships that make this AI‑education push possible, rather than running a full curriculum itself. Public information shows it is supporting the effort in several practical ways:

• National virtual learning event: Zoom is hosting “Zoom Ahead: AI for Tomorrow’s Leaders,” a live nationwide learning experience for K–12 students delivered via Zoom Webinar, with opening remarks from the First Lady and talks from educators, technologists, and young creators who use AI in real‑world work. This lets thousands of schools join the same AI‑focused session at once over Zoom.
• Content and speakers: The event brings in guest speakers (teachers, STEM professionals, creators, and students) to explain and demonstrate how AI is used responsibly and creatively, giving schools plug‑and‑play content they can fold into lessons.
• Funding and philanthropic support: Through its Zoom Cares initiative, the company has committed $10 million over three years to expand access to AI education, including $5 million specifically for K–12 AI education. This money goes toward expanding AI‑education opportunities, though the exact breakdown by program or district is not fully detailed publicly.
• Federal partnership via a White House pledge: Zoom is a signatory to the White House “Pledge to America’s Youth: Investing in AI Education.” Under this pledge, organizations agree (in general) to provide things like funding and grants, educational materials and curricula, technology and tools, teacher professional‑development programs, workforce‑development resources, and/or technical expertise and mentorship. Zoom has said its AI‑literacy event and investments are part of this broader commitment.

Beyond these points, there is no detailed public list yet of specific Zoom‑branded lesson plans or district‑level contracts tied only to this First Lady initiative.

In K–12 education, “AI literacy” generally means giving students enough understanding and hands‑on experience with artificial intelligence that they can use it thoughtfully, safely, and critically—rather than just treating it as a black box.

A widely used definition from the education nonprofit Digital Promise describes AI literacy as “the knowledge and skills that enable humans to critically understand, evaluate, and use AI systems and tools to safely and ethically participate in an increasingly digital world.” Their framework stresses three types of engagement: understanding how AI works, evaluating its outputs and impacts, and then using AI tools appropriately.

In practice, schools typically teach AI literacy by:

• Integrating AI topics into existing subjects (e.g., asking students in English or social‑studies classes to critique AI‑generated text or images, or using AI‑driven tools in science and math projects).
• Offering computer‑science or technology electives that include basic concepts like data, algorithms, machine learning, and bias, often through age‑appropriate activities rather than heavy math.
• Project‑based work where students experiment with AI tools (chatbots, image generators, simple coding environments) while discussing privacy, misinformation, and fairness.
• Teacher professional‑development sessions so educators understand AI tools and can set classroom rules and learning goals around them.

These approaches match broader federal guidance encouraging schools to focus on critical thinking, transparency about AI systems, data privacy, and equity when bringing AI into classrooms.

The article itself only briefly mentions “AI safety” and “ethical” use, but other public documents around U.S. AI‑in‑education efforts show the kinds of safeguards that are expected when students use AI tools:

• Responsible‑use focus: Zoom’s AI‑literacy event is explicitly framed as helping students use AI “responsibly, creatively, and confidently,” and Zoom says its broader approach to AI in education emphasizes responsibility and long‑term investment, not only features.
• Federal guidance on safeguards: The U.S. Department of Education’s report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning urges schools and vendors to:
  • Protect student data privacy and security.
  • Be transparent about when and how AI is used.
  • Guard against algorithmic bias and discriminatory outcomes.
  • Keep humans (teachers and students) in charge of key decisions.
  • Provide clear school‑level policies on acceptable use of AI tools.
• White House AI‑education framework: The AI.gov education initiative and the “Pledge to America’s Youth: Investing in AI Education” both stress promoting AI literacy and proficiency in ways that develop critical thinking and an “AI‑ready workforce,” which in practice includes teacher training, curriculum resources, and partnerships that should incorporate safety, ethics, and privacy protections.

However, there is no publicly available, initiative‑specific rulebook that spells out, for example, exact age limits, content filters, or technical safety controls for every tool used in this First Lady–Zoom program. The safeguards we can point to are general U.S. policy guidance and the stated commitments of Zoom and federal agencies.

This First Lady–led initiative sits alongside—and plugs into—larger U.S. government efforts to push AI education, rather than replacing them.

Key connections:

• Link to AI.gov education strategy: AI.gov describes a national push launched by President Trump’s 2025 executive order Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. It created the White House Task Force on AI Education, which coordinates AI‑education policy, K–12 resources, and a Presidential AI Challenge for youth. Melania Trump’s children‑focused messaging and her AI‑curiosity events are consistent with this federal strategy of promoting early AI exposure and AI literacy.
• Pledge to America’s Youth: The White House “Pledge to America’s Youth: Investing in AI Education” asks companies and organizations (including Zoom) to provide funding, tools, curricula, teacher training, and mentorship for AI education. The Zoom partnership highlighted in the article is one concrete example of a pledge signatory working directly with the First Lady to reach thousands of schools.
• Role of the First Lady in the AI apparatus: The AI.gov page lists the “Assistant to the President for the Office of the First Lady” as a member of the White House Task Force on AI Education. That means the First Lady’s office is formally part of the federal AI‑education coordination structure, and her initiatives like the “Age of Imagination” events and Fostering the Future Together are positioned as the public‑facing, children‑focused side of the broader AI‑education agenda.

So, this initiative is best seen as a high‑visibility, children‑centric piece of a larger White House and AI.gov effort that also includes the Task Force on AI Education, the Presidential AI Challenge, and the AI‑education pledge.

Neither the White House article nor Zoom’s press release gives a precise grade‑by‑grade breakdown or selection formula, but they do provide some clues:

• Targeted age/grade range: Zoom describes its “Zoom Ahead: AI for Tomorrow’s Leaders” event as supporting responsible AI learning for “K–12 students,” and the White House article says the First Lady’s AI‑education mission has “reached thousands of schools nationwide.” Together, that strongly suggests the primary audience is U.S. primary and secondary school students (roughly ages 5–18) across elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Types of schools: The materials refer broadly to “schools nationwide,” without specifying only public or only private schools. Because the event is delivered via Zoom Webinar and promoted nationally, it is likely open to any K–12 school (public, charter, or private) able to register and participate online, though there is no public list of participating institutions.
• How schools are selected: Public documents do not describe a selective application or competitive process. Instead, the national learning experience appears to be opt‑in—schools or districts register to join the live webinar. For the broader Fostering the Future Together coalition (which is global and not limited to U.S. schools), implementation happens at the “local level” within each member country, but specific school‑selection criteria are not published.

So, the best available information is that this program is aimed at K–12 students in a wide range of schools that choose to participate, rather than a narrowly targeted or competitively selected group. Exact participation rules, if any, have not been publicly detailed.