Most New York City students will enter classrooms on Thursday, where artificial intelligence is officially banned. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year pause on all student-facing AI in elementary and middle schools just a week before the school year began.
AI will also be prohibited from most high school classrooms, with the exception of a handful of pilot programs, artificial intelligence literacy courses and career-preparation programs such as robotics and coding. Exceptions apply for students with disabilities who need certain technology to participate in lessons.
But education and technology experts said implementing the ban on such short notice will challenge school system bureaucrats, principals and teachers tasked with ensuring that software used by students is free of chatbots and other AI technology while making sure kids comply with rules on homework and essays.
Educators and parents who lobbied fiercely for an AI moratorium in schools said they are pleased to see new restrictions — although some said the ban should extend through high school.
But proponents of AI education said officials are depriving kids of skills they need to succeed after graduation. They argued that schools are the ideal place to learn how to navigate the technology with the support and safeguards that educators can provide.
Here are the top challenges NYC schools face under the new AI ban:
The city is pulling dozens of computer programs and applications that use artificial intelligence, but there may be more.
School officials said the city would discontinue or disable the AI components of 38 previously allowed programs. They did not name the affected programs.
Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels acknowledged in an interview with WNYC last week that more AI tools may already be available in schools beyond those programs, particularly as companies push updates and add AI features to existing software.
”What’s important to us in New York City Public Schools is that we really send a strong message, especially to our vendors, to say that when you engage in updating your products, you absolutely must communicate that to us because we don’t want our kids exposed to AI without our knowing what is in it and what is being collected.”
Enforcement remains unclear.
Without a policy until now, some teachers have been experimenting with AI tools with their students. Mamdani said he expects all staff to comply with the new rules.
“When it comes to enforcement, we trust that our teachers, our principals [and] our superintendents will be abiding by this,” he said at the Sept. 2 press conference.
But Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said the new policy may place too much of a burden on teachers to police software on their own.
“If we are going to be serious, let’s start at the source, rather than expect school communities or individual educators to figure out after the fact if what their school uses fits the new policy,” he said in a statement in response to the policy.
AI pilot programs are still being determined.
The city is still figuring out which high schools will have the pilot programs, and how students will become part of it. Mamdani said there will be five “rigorously vetted” AI pilots for high schoolers, and officials said those pilots will use a range of educational computer programs, including Quill, Edia, Brisk Teaching, Playlab, and Intel AI-Ready Schools.
Some of those programs include chatbots to help students with reading, math and grammar, while others allow students to learn about or experiment with AI. Any high school can apply to host one of the pilots, and officials will choose from those applications.
Mamdani said the pilot programs, along with AI literacy courses, will teach students about the technology’s potential, pitfalls and biases.
“Whether we like it or not, our teenagers are growing up in an AI-saturated world. We cannot pretend that that world does not exist. It would be irresponsible not to prepare our children for the fast-evolving technological future that lies ahead,” Mamdani said when he announced the ban last week.
Clancy, the parent advocate who opposes AI, called the pilot programs a “gift” to the technology industry.
“There’s no way that that’s getting [students] ready for the future. It’s just a way to outsource labor to AI instead of the teachers. So we really believe these pilots need to get out of schools,” she said.
How will students who use AI to cheat be punished?
Teachers have said AI use for papers and homework is widespread but hard to prove. And even if they could prove it, some teachers said, the education department has not been clear enough about how to discipline students who use AI.
Education department officials have said AI use should carry the same consequences as plagiarism, with punishments ranging from teacher meetings with parents to suspension.
Samuels, the schools chancellor, said the education department will work with schools to develop clearer “detection mechanisms” for when students use AI to cheat. He said parents should also help prevent students from using the technology for schoolwork at home.
“The ongoing conversations with our parents is really important. As we’ve seen with our cell phone ban, this sparks really strong conversations about best practices and how we manage our students at home.”