Gates Foundation commits $400 million to AI tools for schools

September 19, 2026 at 01:01 PM2 min

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The Gates Foundation announced a $1 billion commitment to build equitable AI tools, with 40% directed to education. The $400 million education portion will fund AI tutoring in U.S. and international classrooms. The announcement comes as New York City imposed a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI for grades 2-K through 8.

Key Facts

The Gates Foundation committed $1 billion to equitable AI tools, with 40% ($400 million) allocated to education.
The foundation's July education strategy aims to help 10 million more Americans earn credentials of value by 2045.
New York City announced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI for grades 2-K through 8, affecting nearly 600,000 students.
Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath testified to the U.S. Senate that indiscriminate digital expansion has weakened learning environments.

The Gates Commitment

The Gates Foundation announced a $1 billion commitment to build and deliver equitable AI tools to schools, frontline health care workers, and farmers. Of that commitment, 40% will go toward education, including AI tutoring to individualize learning in classrooms in the U.S. and abroad. The AI push is part of a broader U.S. education strategy the foundation laid out in July, which aims to help up to 10 million more Americans earn credentials of value by 2045. A Gates Foundation spokesperson said the tools will be tested in schools serving high shares of low-income students, paired with teacher training, and evaluated by independent researchers before being scaled.

Skepticism and Policy Response

Test scores have dropped among some students over the same time period since computer assessments were widely implemented. Research shows that since the U.S. spent $30 billion to swap textbooks for laptops, Gen Z has shown to be less cognitively capable than previous generations, according to written testimony by neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath presented to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce. On Sept. 2, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced what the city called the nation's broadest moratorium on student-facing generative AI. The one-year pause applies to students in 2-K through 8th grade, affecting nearly 600,000 students, or roughly two-thirds of the system. Mamdani said the city would spend the year studying the technology's impacts.