Melania Trump is largely keeping herself out of the spotlight during her husbandโs second presidential term. The First Lady doesnโt 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 Americaโs children navigate AI, discussing how it might be done responsibly. But not all were overly excited about Melaniaโs speech.
The Guardianโs 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 isnโt 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 campaignโs mission is โto 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.โ
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.
โThe robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction,โ Melania said. โAs leaders and parents, we must manage AIโs growth responsibly. During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children: empowering, but with watchful guidance.
โWe are living in a moment of wonder,โ Melania concluded. โAnd it is our responsibility to prepare the children of America.โ
While preparing children for a new generation of technology, and raising awareness about its dangers is great, not everyone was pleased with Melaniaโs appearance at the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education meeting.
Just a day after Melaniaโs appearance, The Guardianโs US columnist Arwa Mahdawi wrote a long piece on the first lady, claiming that Melania possibly had other interests at stake regarding AI., which didnโt include the children at all.
Mahdawi wrote that Melania, who she claimed read โfrom a script encased in a very analogue binder,โ may โnot be the best person to help manage AIโs growth responsibly and shield children from potential harm from the technology.โ Moreover, the journalist took a brutal dig at not only Melania, but also her husband, explaining that the entire thing was hypocritical.
โBut 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 stopย gutting public educationย instead. The Trump administration is, for example, attempting toย defund Head Start, a federally funded early childhood program for low-income families, andย cancelledย a grant program that has historically funded educational childrenโs programs like Sesame Street,โ Mahdawi continued.
She concluded by quoting Geoffrey Hinton, also known as the โgodfather of AI,โ who on Friday told the Financial Times that AI โwill make a few people much richer and most people poorer.โ
Mahdawi ended: โWhich, 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.โ
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