Melania Trump is largely keeping herself out of the spotlight during her husband’s second presidential term. The First Lady doesn’t appear to be doing traditional first lady work this time around, though she has a number of projects close to her heart, such as the public awareness campaign Be Best, which focus on issues children face today.
Last week, Melania appeared at an AI event at the White House, stating that she wants to help America’s children navigate AI, discussing how it might be done responsibly. But not all were overly excited about Melania’s speech.
The Guardian’s US columnist Arwa Mahdawi has taken a brutal dig at the first lady, claiming Melania only cares about herself.
Melania chose to approach the role of first lady different when she and Donald Trump moved back into the White House. She has decided to stay out of the spotlight, and such was her commitment to seemingly putting distance between herself and the Oval Office that people started to speculate if everything was alright.
Yet although Melania isn’t what one might call a traditional first lady, she is still active in her role. Her Be Best initiative, for example, is still very much ongoing, which she launched during her first term.
Per its website, the public awareness campaign’s mission is “to focus on some of the major issues facing children today, with the goal of encouraging children to BE BEST in their individual paths, while also teaching them the importance of social, emotional, and physical health. BE BEST will concentrate on three main pillars: well-being, online safety, and opioid abuse.”
Melania makes rare appearance wanting to help children use AI
Last week, Melania made a rare appearance for her Be Best cause. On Thursday, September 4, she hosted a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education, where she discussed how parents can work with their children to use AI.
“The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction,” Melania said. “As leaders and parents, we must manage AI’s growth responsibly. During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children: empowering, but with watchful guidance.
“We are living in a moment of wonder,” Melania concluded. “And it is our responsibility to prepare the children of America.”
While preparing children for a new generation of technology, and raising awareness about its dangers is great, not everyone was pleased with Melania’s appearance at the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education meeting.
Just a day after Melania’s appearance, The Guardian’s US columnist Arwa Mahdawi wrote a long piece on the first lady, claiming that Melania possibly had other interests at stake regarding AI., which didn’t include the children at all.
Mahdawi wrote that Melania, who she claimed read “from a script encased in a very analogue binder,” may “not be the best person to help manage AI’s growth responsibly and shield children from potential harm from the technology.” Moreover, the journalist took a brutal dig at not only Melania, but also her husband, explaining that the entire thing was hypocritical.
Journalist takes brutal dig at Melania and Donald over AI speech
“But if she is keen on doing this work then I suggest she stop convening taskforces on how to integrate AI into childhood education, and simply ask her husband to stop gutting public education instead. The Trump administration is, for example, attempting to defund Head Start, a federally funded early childhood program for low-income families, and cancelled a grant program that has historically funded educational children’s programs like Sesame Street,” Mahdawi continued.
She concluded by quoting Geoffrey Hinton, also known as the “godfather of AI,” who on Friday told the Financial Times that AI “will make a few people much richer and most people poorer.”
Mahdawi ended: “Which, I suspect, is precisely why Melania Trump and the coterie of billionaires and tech executives gathered around her at the White House are so excited about it.”
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