First Lady Melania Trump has made the well-being of children the focus of her mission in the White House. One of her key initiatives, the Fostering the Future Coalition, is convening today to discuss empowering the next generation through education and technology. Bringing together leaders from 45 nations and 28 tech companies, the First Lady will drive conversations to help ensure families worldwide can thrive as transformative technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics grow more prominent. I’m pleased to be participating for NetChoice in the First Lady’s initiative.
This global coalition is fundamentally redefining how we prepare the next generation for a world driven by AI and emerging tech. By bridging the gap between the public sector and tech leaders, the First Lady wants to ensure that children aren’t just passive consumers of digital tools, but active, curious creators that use these tools to improve their lives and communities. Whether it’s through AI-powered tutoring or robotics, the coalition’s goal is to foster in young people the intellectual freedom and curiosity required to use AI as an engine for creative exploration and their future success.
The tech industry leaders gathering here in Washington are making their advanced tools available at little to no cost for participating countries. By focusing on digital empowerment alongside safety, the program builds a foundation where young people can develop everything from movie scripts to fashion designs from their own homes. The initiative encourages children to be “stubbornly curious,” teaching them that while AI can generate information, only they can generate meaning. This approach will help children to enter the workforce as people who control the technology, rather than be replaced by it.
Our series on The Transformative Power of AI highlights how AI tools are helping us to solve some of the most complex challenges facing Americans today and provides examples for how technology can be harnessed by new innovators for good. In the healthcare sector, AI is acting as a “cognitive copilot” for medical professionals, significantly reducing the administrative burdens that lead to burnout and allowing nurses to spend more time with patients. Beyond efficiency, doctors using AI tools are saving lives and reducing costs through early detection of major diseases, including new AI-powered blood tests that can identify biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before symptoms appear, while AI-supported mammograms have been shown to detect 20% more cancers than traditional methods alone.
The impact of AI also extends directly into the heart of America’s rural communities, bridging gaps in access and safety. In rural America, where residents often face higher mortality rates from preventable diseases due to a lack of specialists, AI tools are helping doctors bridge those gaps. On the roads, autonomous vehicles enable a fundamental expansion of human agency and independence for the one in five Americans over 65 who cannot drive.
Nascent AI tools are helpful to drive economic prosperity and agricultural resilience, particularly for small businesses and farmers. AI-powered systems like CropX and autonomous weeding robots are helping farmers cut water use in half and slash weed control costs by 80%, producing a more stable and affordable food supply. By tackling everything from wildfire prediction to helping forecast natural disasters, these AI innovations are practical solutions helping Americans lead safer, more productive and more connected lives.
The First Lady and participants in the Fostering the Future Coalition recognize that the next generation must master these technologies safely to succeed in tomorrow’s communities. NetChoice supports schools having a digital curriculum so students can learn to navigate tech tools responsibly into adulthood and become the next generation of innovators. In America, at the state level, policymakers can lead the charge by developing a digital education curriculum for kids in the classroom. Congress can also help by incentivizing communities to implement these programs by making grants available to state and local educational agencies to support digital education.