First Lady Melania Trump is using her recent experience fast-tracking the audio version of memoir with AI as a launchpad for a new role in her husband’s administration leading an artificial intelligence initiative for kids.
The First Lady’s office on Tuesday officially announced her role in launching the President’s Artificial Intelligence Challenge in a statement in which she invited students and educators in grades kindergarten through 12 to participate.
Trump said the new program “will be the first step in preparing our next generation with a base understanding of this important new technology.”
In an accompanying video posted to her official X account, she recounted how the process of using AI to create her audiobook showed her the potential of the emerging technological field.
“As someone who created an AI powered audiobook and championed online safety through the Take It Down Act, I’ve seen firsthand the promise of this powerful technology,” she said.
“Just as America once led the world into the skies, we are poised to lead again, this time in the age of AI, the President’s national artificial intelligence challenge invites every student in America from kindergarten to 12th grade to unleash their Imagination and showcase the spirit of American innovation.”
It’s unclear what the challenge entails other than to expose children to AI technology, and it was not immediately evident what role the First Lady would play given her lack of technological expertise.
But Mrs. Trump does have some exposure to AI’s potential.
In May, she rolled out the audiobook of her memoir, Melania, which she said was recorded with the aid of an AI model rather than traditionally through recording sessions to convert the book into a seven-hour audio production.
Since her husband returned to office, Ms. Trump has kept a lower profile than she did during his first term. She is understood to spend most of her time in New York City, where her son Barron Trump attends university.
She did play a role in supporting the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including AI generated ones, and requires online platforms to remove such images within two days of receiving a request.
