The same union that fought automation in factories is now taking $23 million from OpenAI and Google to teach teachers how to use AI—and somehow thinks this won't end badly.
The Summary
- American Federation of Teachers is training educators on AI with $23M from the tech companies building the tools that might replace them
- Teachers like Darius Saczuk frame AI as "the enemy" while attending corporate-sponsored workshops on how to stop students from using it
- This is what regulatory capture looks like when it comes for the classroom—unions supposed to protect workers are now on the payroll of the companies automating their jobs
The Signal
The American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest labor unions in the US, just accepted $23 million from the AI companies to train teachers how to use the tools those same companies are building. OpenAI and Google aren't funding this out of charity. They're buying legitimacy and access to the education market while it's still forming opinions about AI.
The framing tells you everything. Teachers are sitting in windowless Manhattan conference rooms learning to think of AI as "the enemy" they need to "understand to beat." That's not worker empowerment. That's Stockholm syndrome with a training budget.
"Know your enemy" is what you say when you've already lost the war but haven't admitted it yet.
Here's what's actually happening:
- Tech companies get union endorsement and classroom penetration
- Teachers get training on tools they don't control and didn't choose
- Students get monitored for AI usage instead of taught how to use it well
- The union gets funding but loses independence
This isn't the first time a union has taken money from the industry it's supposed to check. But it might be the first time a union has done it while the technology is still early enough to shape. The AFT could have used this moment to demand transparency in training data, algorithmic accountability for student assessment, or revenue sharing when AI companies profit from educational content. Instead, they took the check and scheduled workshops.
The irony is thick. Unions were born fighting automation in the industrial age—Luddites weren't anti-technology, they were anti-exploitation by factory owners who automated without sharing gains. Now a major union is teaching its members to police students for the crime of using the same automation tools that adults are deploying everywhere else.
The Implication
Watch what happens when the $23 million runs out. Either the AFT becomes dependent on renewal funding and loses the ability to advocate against harmful AI deployment in schools, or the tech companies decide they've bought enough goodwill and move on. Neither outcome serves teachers or students.
If you're an educator, ask who's funding your AI training and what they want in return. If you're building ed-tech, know that this kind of corporate-union partnership creates short-term market access but long-term trust problems. And if you're a parent, start asking whether your kid's school is teaching them to use AI or teaching them to fear it.