New York City’s public schools will temporarily ban elementary and middle school students from using generative artificial intelligence tools during the upcoming school year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday.
The one-year moratorium — part of a broader assessment of how children in the nation’s largest school system interact with the technology — will apply to “all software that uses student-facing generative AI” for students through eighth grade, the mayor’s office said. It described the policy as the most expansive prohibition in the country.
At the same time, the city will establish twice-yearly AI literacy classes for all public high school students. It will also launch pilot programs allowing some high school students to use a handful of AI platforms under an educator’s supervision. Companion chatbots will be prohibited across all grades, officials said.
The approach comes as students, parents and schools across the country attempt to navigate the use of AI tools in the classroom and elsewhere. Schools are working to teach children how to incorporate the technology while preventing them from relying too heavily on it or using it to cheat.
“Each day when our children come to school, we teach them to ask questions, to challenge assumptions, to interrogate the premise, to ask why. When it comes to AI in our schools, we hold an obligation to do the same,” Mamdani, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
