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Melania Trump is carving out a new role in the Trump administration as the first lady of Technology, the New York Post reports.
She will focus on advancing AI technology, first by leading the Presidential AI Challenge. The competition invites school-aged children to submit projects related to “the study, development, or use of an AI method or tool to address community challenges.” Educators can also register to enter and submit “creative approaches to teaching or using AI technologies in K-12 learning.”
Submissions are due Jan. 20, 2026. In March, state champions will be announced, followed by a national championship in June. Contestants can earn up to $10,000, as well as other prizes, such as a Presidential Certificate of Achievement and cloud credits.
“Just as America once led the world into the skies [through airplane flight], we are poised to lead again, this time in the age of AI,” Melania says.
In a video, the first lady says she became interested in AI after creating a deepfake of herself to narrate her audiobook, skipping hours of time in the studio reading it herself. “I’ve seen firsthand the promise of this powerful technology,” she says. “Now, I pass the torch of innovation to you.”
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President Trump signed an executive order in April to expand the use of AI in schools, directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to come up with a plan on how to do it. But two weeks before, McMahon exposed her unfamiliarity with the technology after calling it A1, as in the steak sauce, while speaking on a panel about education innovation.
“A school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year,” she said, as reported by USA Today. “Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything,” she added. “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”
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Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have all released education-focused AI products this year. However, younger users run the risk of developing unhealthy relationships with AI systems, particularly character-based chatbots. A shocking 72% of teens have spoken to an “AI companion,” according to a recent study. One AI encouraged a young boy to take his own life, his mother alleges in an ongoing lawsuit.
On the positive side, some schools are finding unique ways to adapt lesson plans and better reach their students. For example, the Los Angeles Unified District, one of the nation’s largest, is using the technology to translate materials into other languages and communicate with its growing population of non-native English-speaking students and parents.
The first lady, meanwhile, also backed the Take it Down Act, signed into law in May, which protects children and families from nonconsensual images posted online, including deepfakes. It remains to be seen what other responsibilities Trump would take on as the First Lady of Technology, a title she does not reference in the video but shared with the Post.
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