New York City will temporarily ban the use of AI for students until they reach high school.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday schools will discontinue AI programs for students below the 8th grade.
"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," he said at a press conference announcing the change.
The ban applies to "all software that uses student-facing generative AI" and will be in place for one year while the New York City public school system assesses its use of AI going forward.
The move affects about 600,000 students who have not yet reached high school.
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Meanwhile, students in high school will still be able to use AI tools under supervision. They will attend twice-yearly AI literacy classes and will have access to some AI tools in supervised conditions.
Under the new policy, the use of AI chatbots will be banned for students in all grade levels.
Students are set to return to the classroom for the year next week.
