The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and Microsoft announced a new set of legally enforceable protections governing the use of AI in education, known as the “National AI Safety & Privacy Standard.”
The agreement between Microsoft and the unions enhances safety and privacy protections for students, educators, and families as schools adopt AI. School districts throughout the U.S. will be able to incorporate the new standard into their technology contracts. Coverage of this news can be found in Politico, Forbes, and Government Technology. A fact sheet on the standard can be found here.
Thank you for reading! We’ve rounded up additional tech policy news below and shared a featured podcast.
This Week in Washington
- Nextgov: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a comprehensive public cybersecurity strategy for both criminal and national security threats. Among other elements, the plan specifically calls for wider use of artificial intelligence to improve threat detection and notification.
- StateScoop: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced a new round of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant funding. The new round will target previously missed or ineligible projects using leftover funding from the first round.
- The Hill: The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing on the Water Cost Accountability Act. The bill, which has drawn the support of both the Department of Commerce and Microsoft, would prevent data centers from passing any costs from public water use on to consumers.
- Nextgov: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Operations Center. The new center provides a long-term coordinated future for the NAIRR under the NSF’s umbrella. The pioneering private-public program was scheduled to end in January 2026.
Article Summary
- Government Technology: Kent County, Michigan, is applying AI to recycling with an automated waste processing system to sort waste and recycle more materials. The new program will divert improperly categorized materials and provide more data on how much material can be recycled.
- NBC Miami: University of Miami Computer Science Professor Morris Alper created an AI-based system to create new languages and preserve languages at risk of being lost. The constructed languages apply simple linguistic rules to turn ideas for languages into real systems.
- CBS News: Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced Maryland Community Compass, a new, free, AI-powered tool to help local entrepreneurs identify opportunities. The tool centralizes state-level economic trends, environmental flags, regulations, and funding opportunities on one neighborhood-by-neighborhood dashboard.
Featured Highlight
- The Vergecast
The London Marathon made international headlines this year after two runners became the first to complete a marathon in under 2 hours. The Vergecast provides a deep dive into the technological innovations that fueled this breakthrough and what it shows about the pace of innovation in the AI era. (The Tech that Made a 2-hour Marathon Possible – September 8, 2026 – 37-minute listen)
Note: Voices for Innovation regularly shares a range of opinion articles and press releases from organizations in and publications covering tech policy. These pieces are meant to educate our audience, not to endorse specific platforms or bills.