On Wednesday, President Donald Trump enacted a new executive order aimed at enhancing artificial intelligence (AI) education in K-12 schools, with the intention of equipping students for a workforce increasingly influenced by AI technologies.

As stated in a White House press release, this initiative seeks to guarantee that the United States retains its position as a leader in the global AI arena. The order highlights the importance of fostering AI literacy among students and providing teachers with the necessary resources and training to integrate AI into their teaching environments.

This action seems to be partially motivated by recent events in China. In March, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission declared that AI education would become compulsory for primary and secondary students, mandating a minimum of eight hours of AI instruction each year starting in September. Furthermore, China’s Ministry of Education is focused on integrating AI applications into educational methods, textbooks, and school curricula.

To carry out the new U.S. policy, the executive order creates an Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force. This group will consist of representatives from several federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Energy, and Education, along with the Director of the National Science Foundation and the Special Advisor for AI & Crypto.

China’s swift advancements in AI, especially through firms like DeepSeek, have sparked concerns in the U.S. DeepSeek recently introduced an AI model with reasoning abilities comparable to those of OpenAI but has been reportedly developed at a considerably lower expense. The company’s progress has unsettled U.S. tech markets, prompting President Trump to caution that “the emergence of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should serve as a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be intensely focused on competing to succeed.”

The executive order specifies four primary areas of emphasis:

1. Boosting AI education for K-12 students.
2. Offering professional development in AI for teachers.
3. Widening AI-related Registered Apprenticeship programs in relevant sectors.
4. Initiating a “Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge” to honor exceptional student and educator accomplishments in AI across various age groups and regions.

The AI Challenge is anticipated to be launched within the next 90 days, as mandated by the order.