The government’s effort to ‘Make America AI-Ready’ : NPR
A person walks past a banner depicting President Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor building near the Capitol in Washington, DC, February 2026.
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If AI could save you five hours a week, the government wants to know: “what [you] do with this time? » Would you spend “More time with family?” Finally launching that Etsy store? Fix the garage once and for all? »
It’s the hopeful opening of a new introductory AI course from the Department of Labor. “Keep that in mind. This is your WHY for being here.”
Late last month, the department launched the course called “Make America AI-Ready” with the aim of, in the course’s own words and emojis, “making AI seem less like a mystery and more like a tool you actually want to use. 💪”
The Trump administration has largely responded to the needs of the AI industry. He installed Silicon Valley executives in the White House, repeatedly tried to circumvent state AI laws and pushed for hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure investments.
The Department of Labor says in a press release that this course is one of its contributions to implementing the Trump administration’s AI action plan.
Although AI and media literacy educators have praised the course content and overall framework, some course materials raise questions of government ethics. Union organizers also wonder whether courses like these will be useful when it comes to dealing with potential AI-driven workforce changes.
Course Is Strong Overall, AI Literacy Teachers Say
There is high demand for introductory AI courses, said Peter Stone, chair of the computer science department at the University of Texas at Austin. He co-created a course called “AI Essentials for Life and Society” in 2023, which has hundreds of students per year.
“There are these kinds of hype cycles in the field of artificial intelligence,” Stone said. “I think it’s important that people are able to understand what’s true and that they’re also able to master artificial intelligence, because they’re going to need it.”
The course totals seven brief daily modules that last less than 10 minutes each and are delivered via text message. Each day begins with a lesson, followed by several quiz questions.
“For a course this size, there are only so many things you can do,” said Mike Caufield, a digital literacy expert at the University of Washington Bothell who was not involved in developing the course. “I think it’s a nice little course overall.”
The course covers the principles of using AI effectively, Caufield said. He reviewed the documents and found that they did a good job of considering the importance of context, being specific about what you want, and emphasizing the need to verify AI results.
But Caufield said: “I don’t know if the tone is always perfect in some of these responses. He added that “there were just a few places where it seemed a little too rosy.”
For example, the course continually reminded students of the potential time-saving benefits of AI, which could allow them to do more things outside of work. However, early research suggests this doesn’t happen for most people. In some professions, like software development, people argue that the introduction of AI has led to “work intensification,” where workers end up working on more difficult tasks while AI takes care of simpler ones.
An employee works on a server rack in an Amazon Web Services lab in Austin, Texas, February 3, 2026.
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The Department of Labor’s course also refers to at least one risky tip, directing students to watch a video called “101 Ways to Use AI.” The video suggests that students can ask a chatbot whether or not it is OK to eat a foraged mushroom, which could lead to poisoning.
Taylor Stockton, director of innovation for the Department of Labor, declined to answer questions related to this particular advice, and the DOL did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment.
The presence of private companies raises ethical questions
The Ministry of Labor partnered with technology company Arist to deliver the course. The company specializes in providing courses via text message and has worked with organizations including Etsy, the Poynter Institute, and the California Governor’s Office. While DOL developed the course content, Arist provided it for free as part of the White House’s Pledge to America’s Youth initiative, without a contractual process, Stockton said.
The arrangement is unusual, said Craig Holman, an expert on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules at the nonprofit Public Citizen. “[A] A company that runs a government program and isn’t paid by the government to do so…sounds extremely suspicious to me. »
Arist did not respond to NPR’s request for an interview.
Arist wasn’t the only corporate presence at the course. The lesson, “Putting AI to Work for You,” lists more than a dozen tools. “You choose how AI supports your work. Here are a few worth exploring,” the course says. It then lists chatbots created by well-known AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and xAI, as well as more specific tools.
Also on the list was data visualization tool DataWrapper, which does not use AI in any way, according to the company.
Simply listing the products as part of a government training course, even if no money changed hands, also raises ethical concerns, Holman said. “This effectively amounts to using public resources to promote private interests.”
There are laws prohibiting such actions, and it is up to the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute violations. But Holman said the current administration is not enforcing them.
Stockton said DOL staff does not use this course to approve private companies. “We identified a lot of different tools and companies that [Americans] may or may not choose to consider.”
Labor advocates say course leaves out important context
The stated mission of the Department of Labor is, in part, to “foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the employed, unemployed, and retired people of the United States” and to “promote opportunities for profitable employment.”
But labor advocates say the course doesn’t resemble effective worker training.
“Is this [training] make workers’ work better or safer? Will this help people who want to find employment access high-quality union jobs?” asked Lauren McFerran, president of the AFL-CIO’s Tech Institute and former chair of the National Labor Relations Board. “I’m not sure that teaching someone how to apply for an LLM will necessarily achieve those goals.”
McFerran said the course leaves out key context to help workers adapt to the changing workforce shaped by AI. “I just think that telling trainees that the biggest danger in using AI is that you have to check the facts is misleading at best.”
She said workers are concerned about how management uses AI. “Are you building a product that will eventually cost you your job? Is your employer going to start demanding unrealistic productivity if all of a sudden it’s decided that AI can make you ten times faster?”
Stockton, the DOL’s chief innovation officer, said the AI introductory course is just a starting point and the department is engaging with stakeholders, including unions, to “invest in programs that not only benefit businesses, but also workers.”
He said the DOL is talking with unions about joining such an initiative, which has not yet been launched, called the AI Workforce Hub. Unions including the AFL-CIO, Communication Workers of America and National Nurses United said they had not yet heard from the DOL about the initiative.
One of the goals of the Department of Labor’s AI introductory course appears to be to get people to use AI more.
“Now that you have completed the course, how often do you use AI tools? »
A: Daily or almost daily
B: A few times a week
C: Occasionally, for specific tasks
D: Not yet, but I’m more open to it now
To a student who answers “From time to time,” he responds, in part:
✔️ No worries!
➕ We challenge you to choose a routine task this week where AI can help you,
To those who answer “A few times a week”, it says:
This also appears to be the goal of Arist CEO Michael Ioffe. “What we found in the early data is that the course very significantly increases the use of AI,” he said at a conference in late March, where he appeared on stage with Stockton.
