New York City Public Schools to Ban AI Use for a Year as New Term Begins

New York City is putting a one-year freeze on student use of generative artificial intelligence as its public schools prepare to reopen.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuel announced that students from 2-K through eighth grade, roughly 600,000 children, will be barred from using software with generative AI. The ban covers the preschool, elementary and middle-school years.

Students in grades nine through 12 will receive AI literacy instruction twice a year. The district will also run a pilot program allowing students to use selected AI programs under teacher supervision. Conversational chatbots such as ChatGPT, however, will remain prohibited for students in every grade. Exceptions will apply to students with disabilities, multilingual students and those preparing for careers in computer science. Teachers may use AI to prepare lessons and handle administrative work.

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Children need human bonds with teachers in order to learn and grow. They also need to develop skills with their peers, build relationships with educators, and wrestle directly with challenging problems.

The city is pairing the AI policy with limits on screen time. Students in grades three through five will be limited to 30 minutes of device use a day, while those in grades six through eight will receive 45 minutes. Second-grade students and younger children will not be allowed to use one-to-one devices.

A task force made up of students, teachers, parents, city officials and experts will evaluate the effects of the suspension. New York schools briefly banned ChatGPT after its release in 2022, then lifted the restriction. The new policy covers generative AI services more broadly.

Mamdani said children need relationships with teachers and direct engagement with difficult problems. “The technology industry says that early AI-based education is not only inevitable but necessary, but we do not agree,” he said. The United Federation of Teachers welcomed the screen-time limits but said education officials should press AI companies more aggressively to introduce safeguards. The article also notes that Los Angeles banned school-issued devices for younger children in June, while about 80 AI and digital-device restriction programs have been introduced across 24 U.S. states.

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The technology industry says that early AI-based education is not only inevitable but necessary, but we do not agree.