New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Wednesday a one-year ban on artificial intelligence tools for elementary and middle school students across the city’s public schools, the largest school system in the United States.
The moratorium applies to “all software that uses student-facing generative AI” for students through eighth grade, the mayor’s office said. Officials described it as the most expansive prohibition of its kind in the country. Companion chatbots will be barred across all grade levels.
The restriction forms part of a broader review of how children interact with the technology in classrooms. Schools nationwide have struggled to teach students to use AI tools without over-relying on them or using them to cheat.
“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,” Mamdani, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
High school students face a different set of rules. The city will introduce twice-yearly AI literacy classes for all public high school students. It will also launch pilot programs allowing some high school students to use a handful of AI platforms under an educator’s supervision.
Officials also issued screen-time recommendations. The city suggested a cap of 30 minutes a day for students in grades three through five and 45 minutes for students in grades six through eight. Teachers will still be permitted to use AI for instructional planning and operational tasks.
The policy arrives as governments and school systems worldwide weigh how to regulate the technology in education. Debates over access and restriction have extended well beyond classrooms, from export controls to the shifting rules governing international AI events and research.
The measures take effect for the upcoming school year, with the review of children’s engagement with AI running alongside the one-year prohibition.