Author: Allison Hsu, Graphics: Sylvia Tirado
Educational technology and AI integration in schools has become a policy priority on the basis of job-preparedness and media literacy.
AI Literacy to be Required in CA K-12 Curricula
On October 2nd, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2876—a bill mandating the integration of AI literacy into K-12 curricula across the state of California. Introduced by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) and unanimously passed by the state Assembly and Senate, AB 2876 will amend sections of California’s Education Code dedicated to curriculum development. Starting January 1st, 2025, the previously established Instructional Quality Commission will incorporate AI literacy framing into their next revisions of mathematics, science, and history-social science curriculum structure and evaluative criteria. The bill also requires the adoption of media literacy content into the same subjects, with the addition of English and language arts. AI literacy is defined in the bill text as “the knowledge, skills, and attitudes associated with how artificial intelligence works, including its principles, concepts, and applications … as well as… its limitations, implications, and ethical considerations.”
AB 2876 was co-sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber), California’s largest business advocacy organization. A spokesperson for CalChamber stated that the intention behind sponsoring the bill was to provide California students with the “basic skills and foundational knowledge to succeed as consumers, voters and workers in a modern world”, whether that means being able to detect AI generated content in the media, effectively utilize AI-based tools in the workplace, recognize when the impacts of AI usage perpetuate societal harms or any number of other skills that an AI-literate generation ought to possess. Legislators and educational stakeholders have begun to view AI literacy as a key component of life readiness, a skill as vital as arithmetic or the ability to read.
The significance of this bill is in the quiet concession that it makes: AI tools are here to stay. As home to Silicon Valley and its many AI innovators, California’s decision to incorporate artificial intelligence into its education framework is a response to rapid technological innovation that has fundamentally altered the way we work, entertain ourselves, and communicate with others. Current K-12 students have experienced a world where AI is not an innovation but a fact of life, and AB 2876 is a step toward helping them navigate that world as they grow into the doctors, lawyers, policymakers, and parents of the next generation.
Looking Ahead for California
Early initiatives toward advancing AI literacy in California school districts have begun with staff training and educational series to equip educators with the tools to help their students become AI literate, as well as bolstering their own knowledge of artificial intelligence functions. Citing an “ongoing commitment to stay current,” the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District superintendent Brett Geithman describes the goal of AI-focused professional development for education as a necessary step towards “[integrating] AI into classrooms in a safe, responsible, and exciting way.”
AB 2876’s definition of AI literacy is intentionally broad, with elements of history, morality, technical knowledge, and sociology all incorporated into one core educational standard. This implies that teachers can take a variety of paths with classroom executions, and that it is very possible to incorporate AI literacy lessons and takeaways into existing curricula. Despite the association of artificial intelligence with science and engineering, there are extensive applications for artificial intelligence across all aspects of the way we live. Educators will be able to use these intersections to create natural lesson transitions that will help students to contextualize abstract concepts from the world of technology.
An Emerging Education Shift
AB 2876 in California is just one of the more recent cases of artificial intelligence intersecting with educational public policy. Fortunately, the state has many examples to reference ahead of the Instructional Quality Commission’s next framework revisions. Earlier this year, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) published a book of guidelines for the use of generative AI in its schools. The guidebook included strategies for teachers to automate classroom routines to maximize time dedicated to student interaction, as well as ways in which AI could make classrooms more equitable, for example, encouraging ESL students toward translation programs or students with disabilities toward transcription tools.
Looking beyond the United States, the Japanese Ministry of Education released its own guidelines in 2023 for AI integration in classrooms. Among its suggestions is the use of AI-generated content, such as fake news articles, to be used in fact-checking exercises to help students better identify false information when they come across it organically. Notably, the Ministry also discusses the potential need to pivot away from traditional assignments such as take-home reports, where the increasing use of generative AI by students may nullify their educational value.
In both of the former cases— as well as the many others that exist—there are three main throughlines: (1) teachers must be professionally developed in AI literacy, (2) AI has the power to supplement student learning journeys in a positive and enriching way, and (3) education systems must adapt to a world in which AI usage is mainstream, both by encouraging students to use AI in productive ways and pre-empting the ways in which they may use it to their own disadvantage.
Beyond the Classroom
Emerging data from leading research centers point our society toward a future where AI is a core tenet of the global economy. According to the World Economic Forum’s “The Future of Jobs Report 2023,” AI and machine learning specialists top the list of fast growing jobs”, with an expected one million roles to be added to the sector by 2028. Additionally, a projected 75% of companies are “looking to adopt [AI features] in the next five years.” CalChamber Policy Advocate Ronak Daylami described AB 2876 as a step to “better position future generations of workers to succeed in an AI driven workforce.” Daylami also spoke of the bill’s intention to “relieve burdens for students so that they don’t struggle… with technologies in their lives or workplaces as adults”.
Failure to equip students with the necessary skills to navigate a job market that will soon require AI competency would reflect poorly on any education system that aims to shape students into well-informed, workplace-ready citizens. AB 2876 can be viewed as a productive measure to ensure that students are properly trained for their lives post-secondary and a preventative measure to ensure no student is left behind in a world that is being rapidly transformed by AI technology.
Take-Home Points
- Bill AB 2876, signed by Gavin Newsom on October 2nd, 2024, mandates the integration of AI literacy content in schools for the coming year.
- AI literacy is viewed by policymakers and business leaders as key to academic, social, and financial success in the near future.
- California schools have already started teacher programming and professional development to prepare for curriculum changes.
- Both nationally and globally, the incorporation of AI literacy materials in K-12 education is becoming increasingly popular.
- Leading research institutions predict that AI and machine learning roles will continue to increase as companies indicate intent to adopt AI features within the decade.
- AB 2876 is one way that governments have begun to prepare new generations for a rapidly evolving job market and global technological environment.
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