A coalition of parents, students, teachers, artists and elected officials rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday to speak out against the use of generative AI in schools ahead of a joint meeting of the City Council Committees on Education and Technology.
They called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to declare a two-year moratorium on the use of generative AI in schools, citing concerns about student privacy, critical thinking skills, climate goals, and corporate greed.
Greg Pak, an artist with the advocacy group Comix Action, said that he frequently works with students to share his love of comics and creative expression. He worried that the use of generative AI in schools would stunt the creativity and self confidence of NYC students and could possibly have worse consequences, referring to several high-profile suicides of young people that have been linked to AI chatbots.
“AI in the classroom, I truly believe, is child abuse,” Pak said. “AI in the classroom tells kids that they are incapable; it tells kids that they are ‘less than.’ It tells kids that what they can create with their minds, with their own hands and the observations they make with their own eyes and the thoughts they have with their own brains— it tells them ‘that’s worthless.’”
In addition to concerns about AI’s impact on creativity and critical thinking, parents and advocates also questioned the security of their children’s data.
Liat Olenick, an organizer with Climate Families NYC, said that even the technology using AI that her children have never used in school is still putting them at risk. She described an app used by educators in her son’s school called Procare.
Olenick said that teachers record sensitive information about children through the app and criticized the tech company for its privacy policy, which suggests that it may sell some deidentified data to third parties or share information with law enforcement when legally required.
“The teachers enter when he goes to the bathroom into it [the app],” Olenick said. “How much sleep he gets, his mood, his interests, and photos of him.”
Parents, teachers, students and artists rallied in front of City Hall Wednesday to ask Mayor Zohran Mamdani to pause the implementation of AI in public schools for two years ahead of a city council meeting with the education and technology committees. Photo: Sadie Brown
In March, NYC Public Schools rolled out guidance for teachers within the system using AI. It detailed risks like misinformation and security concerns, along with detailing the Enterprise Request Management Application ERMA, a process that NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) developed to ensure security compliance.
NYCPS did not respond to amNewYork’s questions about how many DOE contracts currently involve AI technology or the amount it spends on those contracts. But the agency did say that Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is using the feedback from parents, educators and advocates about AI to develop a comprehensive plan yet to be revealed.
“The prior administration hit the gas on AI without genuine family engagement,” a NYCPS spokesperson said in a statement to amNewYork. “That is not the approach Chancellor Samuels will be taking. Earlier this year, New York City Public Schools took the first step to put initial guardrails in place while developing a policy to protect our students in partnership with families and communities. We will be sharing more soon.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams joined protesters to raise concerns over the Department of Education’s plan for AI technology in schools.
“What I do know is that when you don’t know the answer, you don’t go from zero to 100 all the way with no guard rails,” Williams said.
The elected official and father of two also questioned the motives of tech corporations pitching the city on AI education tools.
“The other part for me is that this seems to be coming from corporate greed, not from learning,” Williams said. “These folks don’t care about our children learning, they care about themselves making money. And any time I see a system where money is the main thing, people suffer.”
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who chairs the Committee on Technology, said that while AI must be recognized as a tool, it shouldn’t be introduced to children until the DOE has more answers than questions about the technology.
“We’ve got to strike that balance,” she said. “We want technology, we want to make sure that we’re using technology to make government more effective, to make sure that job creation happens, economic development. But when it comes to our children, we don’t play about our babies.”