Day of AI

What Day of AI is

Day of AI is a free curriculum for teaching artificial intelligence literacy in schools, from pre-kindergarten to grade 12, together with free professional development for the teachers who use it. Its readers are K-12 teachers, school leaders and the families of students. The homepage says it is "Powered by MIT RAISE and developed with leading researchers in AI education", and that it brings "free and open-source AI tools, curriculum, assessments, and teacher professional development materials developed by MIT RAISE to students and educators everywhere."

According to the About page, Day of AI began at MIT in 2021, created by faculty and researchers at MIT RAISE, an MIT initiative on responsible AI in education, to prepare K-12 students "of all backgrounds to thrive in an AI-powered world." It was developed in partnership with the i2 Learning Foundation. In August 2024 it became an independent nonprofit, broadening its mission to supporting teachers in using AI tools responsibly and helping school leaders design AI literacy programs, while continuing to work closely with MIT RAISE.

The curriculum

The Teachers page promises "a comprehensive, hands-on, and open-source curriculum for all K-12 grade bands", with lessons running from "What is AI?" to generative AI, ethics, bias and privacy. Activities are meant to fit any subject and can run "over a day, a week, or integrated throughout the year." The page is explicit that "No computer science degree is required."

In August 2026 Day of AI released a grade-by-grade PreK-12 curriculum, which its news release presents as the first free one of its kind in the country. It is built as a progression:

• PreK to Grade 4: hands-on games, telling natural from artificial objects, the roles machines play in daily life, and simple pattern recognition.
• Grades 5 to 8: predictions, data, machine learning, bias, fairness and privacy.
• Grades 9 to 12: ethics, identity, career impacts, human agency and decisions society makes about AI.

The release says the curriculum covers responsible AI use (independent critical thinking, human-led drafting and oral checks of mastery), units on algorithmic bias, data privacy rights, environmental impacts and fact-checking AI-generated content, and digital ethics topics such as deepfake rules and student privacy. Curriculum lead Valerie Brock explains the approach: "A first grader shouldn't learn about AI the same way a tenth grader does." The release says the work draws on Day of AI's work with major school systems, including New York City Public Schools and Boston Public Schools.

Teachers get ready-to-use lesson plans, slide decks, student activities, assessments and professional development resources. A companion implementation guide gives role-specific guidance for teachers, school leaders, instructional staff and the wider school community. Everything sits in a free curriculum resources library on the site, and the site's login works through an emailed link.

Professional development

Teacher training is part of the package. The Teachers page offers "free online workshops and training videos led by expert educators" to help teachers "demystify AI, effectively integrate it into your lessons, and prepare your students for the future." The site banner advertises free professional learning sessions, and the curriculum launch came with a free introductory webinar for educators and district leaders. School leaders have their own section with curriculum, professional development and family resources.

Students and families

Day of AI also puts students in the conversation. Its Student Senate brought students from all 50 states to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute to write recommendations for safe, ethical and responsible AI in education, released as the STUDENT FIRST Act, with Student Action Materials for classes to use. Family resources and an AI Trivia feature round out the student-facing side.

Reach and results

The homepage reports "5,000,000+ students reached" and says "93% of teachers rated our materials as 'Good' or 'Excellent'." The August 2026 news release gives an earlier figure of over 4 million students. The program hubs page says participants from more than 175 countries have run Day of AI activities since 2021, that over 70,000 users have accessed the curricula in settings from large urban schools to rural communities, homeschools and afterschool programs, and that educators who translated and adapted the lessons have reached over 2 million students.

Program hubs around the world

A Day of AI Hub is "a local or regional initiative that brings together educators, partners, and resources to promote AI literacy in schools and communities." The menu lists hubs for the Americas, Australia, Bulgaria, Central and East Asia, Latvia, New Zealand / Aotearoa, Rwanda and West Asia/Middle East. The hubs page gives examples: 121,485 students in Australia took part in 2025; New Uzbekistan University launched Day of AI Uzbekistan in 2025; the Rwanda program was developed with the Rwanda Ministry of Education and the Rwanda Education Board; FPT Schools runs Day of AI Vietnam; and Latin American countries work with it through the Cruzando Foundation. In Latvia, Riga Business School hosted the country's first AI Day for high school students on May 17, 2024.

Organizations that want to start a hub get guidance: translate and localize lessons to local language, culture and standards, include regional examples, plan for low-tech schools, train teachers, build a team of educators, technologists and policy advocates, and involve ministries, universities, NGOs and teacher networks.

The people behind it

The advisors listed on the About page are MIT faculty. Cynthia Breazeal, a professor of media arts and sciences, MIT dean for digital learning and founding director of MIT RAISE, launched the program. The homepage quotes her: "It's critical for all students to have AI literacy if they are going to be using computers, or really, almost any type of technology." In the curriculum release she adds that the goal is to give students the skills "to understand it, question it, and make informed decisions about the technology shaping their world." Hal Abelson, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, "directed the first implementation of the Logo computer language for the Apple Computer", and Eric Klopfer directs MIT's Scheller Teacher Education Program. The team page describes a mix of classroom educators and MIT researchers.

Cost and license

Day of AI is free for educators, schools and districts. Its terms of use say it "shares materials freely for noncommercial use under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License."

Who it suits

Day of AI suits a K-12 teacher of any subject who wants to teach how AI works and what it means, without a computer science background, and needs ready lessons for one day, a unit or a whole year. It suits a school or district building an AI literacy program across grades, since the PreK-12 progression, the implementation guide and the leader resources cover that planning. Ministries, universities and nonprofits outside the US can use the hub model and the open license to adapt it locally.

It suits less well anyone looking for a commercial product to resell or a coding course that teaches students to build AI systems in depth: the materials are noncommercial, and their focus is literacy, ethics and critical thinking.