Free AI Lessons Reach US Teachers as Students Adopt

Samsung's expanded program targets a gap in which most students use AI but few schools teach it, with a goal of 100,000 teachers over five years.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence

Free AI Lessons Reach US Teachers as Students Adopt

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Samsung has expanded its Solve for Tomorrow program with a free AI curriculum and teacher support for US schools. The AI Foundations curriculum, developed with the Mark Cuban Foundation, focuses on hands-on problem-solving, and the program is currently in use rather than an unreleased product. The development is an active program expansion, not a research-stage claim.

Why it matters

Students are adopting AI far faster than schools are teaching it, with roughly 95% of US high school students having used it while only 16% say their school offers AI lessons. Samsung's expansion targets that gap by pairing student projects with free professional development for teachers.

The survey reports that 95% of US high school students have used AI, against 16% whose school offers instruction in it. Results show 63% of students worry about depending on AI too much, and 51% say they would be more interested in AI if they saw it make a real difference for people; the sampling method and margin of error were not provided.

The players

Samsung

Consumer electronics company whose Solve for Tomorrow program is in its 17th annual US competition and now includes an AI curriculum.

Mark Cuban Foundation

Nonprofit co-developer of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow: AI Foundations curriculum.

Emma Grede

Entrepreneur returning as the Solve for Tomorrow Ambassador for a second year.

MIT Solve

Initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is bringing its mentorship infrastructure to the competition.

The details

The AI Foundations curriculum has students build practical AI skills while working on STEM projects, emphasizing hands-on problem-solving rather than lecture-based instruction. Samsung delivers teacher support through partnerships with DonorsChoose, First Book, and the Mark Cuban Foundation. The Samsung Teacher Academy offers free professional development covering AI, STEM, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and storytelling.

Samsung plans to reach 100,000 teachers with free AI resources over the next five years.
The article announcing the expanded program was published November 3, 2026.

The Tech Race

Samsung's expansion sits within the broader push by technology companies to build AI literacy pipelines alongside their consumer products. The effort extends the 17-year-old Solve for Tomorrow competition into curriculum and teacher training rather than only student awards.

Teachers in participating US schools can access the free AI curriculum and professional development from Samsung's Teacher Academy, and the program plans to reach 100,000 teachers over five years. Availability timelines for specific schools and grade levels were not specified in the source.

The takeaway

The gap between student AI use and school instruction is the trajectory to watch, and Samsung's 100,000-teacher target over five years will show whether free curricula can close it. Track whether the program publishes participation counts or student outcome data within that window.