AI INSTITUTE • BORN IN A HALLWAY AT NASA'S JPL • LOS ANGELES
26 YEARS OF TRUST HELPED US SEE THE NEXT CHALLENGE EARLY.
Family First Foundation spent decades earning access to schools, students, and families. When artificial intelligence began entering students' lives, that trust put us close enough to see a new problem before it became a national conversation: access had arrived before guidance.
$0.74/Child
MODELED OVER 10 YEARS
K–12
ALL GRADE LEVELS
NSF
VALIDATION IN PROGRESS
2 School years
CLASSROOM DATA
It Started in a Hallway at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
THE ORIGIN
2025
"Two fathers. Two sons. Von Karman Hall. And a question nobody in AI was asking."
Richard Awni and Dr. Russell Knight, longtime collaborators and fathers, were both part of JPL/NASA Scout Troop 509. Their youngest sons were working on Eagle Scout projects. They met in Von Karman Hall at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and made a decision: run a basic AI training program for their local school district as a community giveback through Family First Foundation.
The first semester changed everything.
In our pilot, SAFE-USE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE reached 90% (up from 13.9%), CHECKING AI OUTPUT hit 89% (from 14%), and RIGHT-WAY AI USE rose to 88% (from 15.8%). We saw that the first generation introduced to AI lacked training on how to use it as an amplifier. Tools were being handed out that reinforced offloading and a replacement of thought rather than a true extension of it.
Cognitive offloading - the soup du jour. And nobody was working on the behavioral engineering side of how humans actually think alongside AI.
WHAT WE SAW
THE TOOLS ARRIVED FIRST.
Students were already using AI for schoolwork, often before anyone had shown them how to question an answer, verify information, protect their own voice, or know when the machine was doing too much of the thinking for them.
Family First had seen this pattern before in another form: access without structure rarely creates the outcome you want.
So we asked a new question: How do we help young people use AI without giving up the thinking that makes learning matter?
RIGHT-WAY AI USE
88%
up from 15.8%
The Artificial Intelligence Institute's validated field data from classrooms over two school years.
CHECKING AI OUTPUT
89%
up from 14%
SAFE-USE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE
90%
up from 13.9%
FROM ONE DISTRICT TO A NATION
Evidence from the field was undeniable: RIGHT-WAY AI USE jumped to 88% from 15.8%, followed by 89% for CHECKING AI OUTPUT. Our work grew in two directions. The Artificial Intelligence Institute, a separate public benefit corporation, was built to carry the science and the delivery to scale. Family First Foundation, a 501(c)(3), took up the philanthropic mission: to make that training available to every child, whatever their ZIP code and whatever their district can afford.
For twenty-six years, Family First has measured its work one student, one school, one Los Angeles neighborhood at a time. The 74-Cent Moonshot asks the same question of the whole country. With SAFE-USE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE now at 90% from 13.9%, we know this model works for every student.
STUDENT VOICES — LET THE PROOF SPEAK
WHAT CHANGE SOUNDS LIKE
The most important part of this story is not what adults say about AI. It is what students begin to say after they learn to slow down, question, compare, and verify.
"I used to ask AI for the answer. Now I compare, contrast, and check my work." — Paloma Jewell
WHAT GREW FROM THE WORK
FROM A FAMILY FIRST RESPONSE TO A SPECIALIZED INSTITUTE.
What began as a response to a problem we were seeing in real school environments grew beyond the scope of a traditional community foundation program.
Working with Dr. Russell Knight and other education and technology leaders, the early Family First work evolved into the Artificial Intelligence Institute, a separate organization created to carry the specialized AI-readiness work forward at greater scale.
Its public idea is simple: Driver's Education for Artificial Intelligence. Think first. AI helps second.
Meet Professor Atlas
One system. It leads students to the path instead of handing over the answer.
FOR FAMILIES
The Ultimate Tutor
Warm, patient, and on the student's side. Atlas leads a child to the path and never just hands over the answer, powered by the Institute's proprietary reasoning science.
Paloma, 4th grade, in her own words
FOR COLLEGE AND ADVANCED LEARNERS
The Ultimate Reasoning Partner
Works across medicine, biology, nanotechnology, aerospace, and engineering. Atlas amplifies a student's creativity and judgment. It partners with the student rather than tutoring.
The college engineering student who is earning A's in real aerospace engineering using the same five-hour method
One student's story.
FOR WORKFORCE
Ready for Work
Built for the employers and credentialing bodies that need people who can think with AI and verify it.
TWO ORGANIZATIONS. ONE SHARED CONCERN FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.
FAMILY FIRST FOUNDATION
26+ years of community trust, families, schools, youth access, sports, education, mentorship, and philanthropy.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE
Specialized AI-readiness, behavioral science, technology, research, institutional implementation, and scalable training.
Family First opened the door. The Institute carries the specialized AI work forward.
WHAT FAMILY FIRST CONTINUES TO DO
Family First Foundation remains the philanthropic home for this mission. As part of how the Institute was founded, Family First retained the right to make this program free for every K-12 school and college in the country. We call it the 74-Cent Moonshot: a ten-year national goal with an estimated cost of about 74 cents per child. Gifts supporting national access are made through Family First Foundation, a tax-deductible 501(c)(3). In our latest data, RIGHT-WAY AI USE reached 88% up from 15.8%, while SAFE-USE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE hit 90% up from 13.9%. Gifts supporting national access are made through Family First Foundation, a 501(c)(3).
