Senator Husted highlights AI integration during visit in Miami County

TIPP CITY, Ohio (WKEF) --Ohio Senator Jon Husted visited Tippecanoe High School Wednesday morning.

The visit was just one of six events planned across the state for Husted. He participated in a roundtable discussion about the future of AI in K-12 education and the importance of public-private partnerships and innovation in Ohio’s schools.

Husted visited Tippecanoe High School to celebrate the launch of the first K-12 AI PC lab in the nation.

"This is a first-of-its-kind lab that is helping to integrate AI into every aspect of education, and Ohio and the Miami Valley are leading the way," said Husted.

Husted says there were worries about AI in schools, but he says now educators and students must be equipped to prepare them for a rapidly evolving workforce.

"This helps teachers do their jobs better, reach more students, make everybody's job a little more enjoyable. Whether it's teachers or students, everybody has a little more fun when they can design a learning environment that best meets their needs," Husted said.

The school welcomed Husted to get a firsthand look at their new AI Academy, chatting with students and teachers using AI tools.

Husted mentioned the Miami Valley has some of the most high-tech companies, particularly in the defense sector, and the defense sector and Intel are really great partners.

"A lot of things are going on here in the Miami Valley that are connected between the two, because if we want to have national security, we have to make more chips, the highest tech chips in America right now. We don't do that. So if the defense sector here and the tech sector with Intel in the Columbus area partner together with educational institutions like Tipp City, then we all win and we all are getting ahead," Husted said.

Partnerships with industry leaders like Intel will help open doors and prepare students for the future.

"It is about training students, not just on the table, not just on what is allowed, but giving them the ethics, giving them the mindset. How do you really solve today's problems in a creative way and in a way that's really going to make an impact?" said Sarah Kemp, vice president of international government affairs, Intel.

As lieutenant governor of Ohio, Husted helped launch an AI Toolkit for Ohio’s K-12 school districts to empower policymakers, superintendents, principals, IT staff, teachers, and parents to advance AI literacy in their school districts and provide resources to promote student privacy, data security, and ethics.

More events were planned for Thursday for Husted in the Miami Valley.