Background

1. President issued an Executive Order for “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth”

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2. Microsoft gave their annual report called, “2025, The Year the Frontier is Born”

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3. Google made all of their AI courses free.

We’ve seen fire spark civilization.
We’ve seen the wheel transform movement.
We’ve seen the printing press democratize knowledge.
Electricity lit up the world.
The telephone shrunk distances.
The internet connected the globe.

And now—perhaps the most transformative tool yet—generative artificial intelligence—has arrived.

But what excites me even more is the rise of dedicated, personalized, AI-driven student learning assistants—tools that function as personalized tutors, adapting to each learner’s pace, needs, and goals. Imagine every student in our district supported by a responsive, on-demand learning coach!

AI has been researched since the 1950s. Major advances in applied AI emerged in the 2000s with companies like Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, and Google. Generative AI, including tools that create text, images, and video, began being developed in the 2010s and became mainstream in the early 2020s with companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Alibaba.

Generative AI experienced its major public boom in late 2022 and throughout 2023, driven by the launch and rapid adoption of tools like:

• ChatGPT (by OpenAI) — Released to the public in November 2022, it was the first generative AI tool to go viral globally, hitting 100 million users in just two months.

• GitHub Copilot (by GitHub + OpenAI) — Released in July 2022, but gained much broader traction in 2023 as AI coding tools became mainstream.

• Claude (by Anthropic) — Launched in early 2023, as an aligned alternative to ChatGPT, becoming available to the public in March–July 2023.

• Google Bard (now Gemini) — First released in March 2023, joining the competition as Google's generative response.

• Microsoft Copilot — Integrated into Microsoft 365 tools starting mid-to-late 2023, pushing GenAI further into workplace productivity.

Not a band aid

Not a good leader

Does not replace poor instructional practices

Perhaps the most transformative tool a teacher and/or student will ever have!