The US Department of Education (Department) is committed to supporting the use of technology to improve teaching and learning and to support innovation throughout educational systems. This report addresses the clear need for sharing knowledge and developing policies for “artificial intelligence”, a rapidly advancing class of foundational capabilities that are increasingly embedded in all types of educational technology systems and are also available to the public. We will consider “educational technology” (edtech) to include both (a) technologies
specifically designed for educational use, as well as (b) general technologies that are widely used in educational settings.

Recommendations in this report seek to engage teachers, educational leaders, policy makers, researchers, and educational technology innovators and providers as they work together on pressing policy issues that arise as artificial intelligence (AI) is used in education.

Since the public release of Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and other similar systems, some members of Congress have expressed interest in the risks associated with “generative artificial intelligence (AI)”. Although exact definitions vary, generative AI is a type of AI that can generate new content—such as text, images, and videos—through learning patterns from preexisting data. It is a broad term that may include various technologies and techniques from AI and machine learning (ML).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our country and our world. From how citizens navigate their daily lives to how researchers drive discoveries in the lab to how manufacturers build products, AI is giving rise to new capabilities. New AI and AI-driven discoveries and capabilities hold the potential to drive practical solutions to address critical global challenges such as food production, climate change, poverty, and cancer. We have only started to scratch the surface of what is possible and cannot afford to miss out on seizing the opportunity for leveraging AI to serve the public good.