New York City shuts down AI use in public schools

New York City is imposing the most restrictive school AI measure in the United States, barring students through eighth grade from using artificial intelligence in public schools for one year.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said children need teachers and human contact to learn and develop. They also need to build skills with classmates, form relationships with educators and struggle with difficult problems themselves, he said.

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Children need teachers and human contact to learn and develop.

The policy will cover about 600,000 students in the country’s largest school system. Students in public high schools, typically aged 14 and older, will be allowed to use AI in limited pilot projects and will receive AI instruction twice a year. Teachers can still use the technology for lesson planning and administrative tasks.

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They need to develop skills together with their classmates, build relationships with their teachers and struggle with difficult problems themselves.

During the coming school year, students, teachers, parents, elected officials and industry experts will join a working group to assess the ban’s effects. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said authorities must ensure rapidly developing technology supports children and their learning rather than obstructing it.

Los Angeles and other school districts are also reviewing their policies. New York City temporarily blocked ChatGPT soon after its launch in 2022, but later lifted the restrictions and replaced them with a specially developed AI teaching assistant, according to Microsoft, which co-owns ChatGPT developer OpenAI. OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Microsoft did not immediately comment on the new measure.

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We have a responsibility to ensure that technology, which is developing rapidly, supports our children and their learning instead of getting in the way of it.