According to the American political news website Politico, on September 2nd local time, New York City introduced a comprehensive artificial intelligence ban for young students. This move marks a significant increase in schools' regulation of this emerging technology.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on the same day that a one-year ban will be implemented for the new school year, prohibiting students in kindergarten grades 2-K through eighth grade from using artificial intelligence tools in the classroom. This policy will affect approximately 600,000 students, who represent two-thirds of the total number of students in New York’s public schools.
Mamdani publicly criticized education technology at a press conference in Brooklyn. He said, "The tech industry tries to convince us that artificial intelligence being used in early education is not only inevitable but also essential. We do not agree with this view. So far, I have not seen any research that proves artificial intelligence to be beneficial for elementary and middle school students—of course, except for those studies funded by companies that hope to benefit from it."
Reports indicate that this ban in New York City is one of the most stringent policies implemented by major school districts in the United States to date. At the same time, federal legislation aimed at defining regulatory boundaries for artificial intelligence on campus has been stalled. Several states with varying positions, including Virginia, Idaho, and Oklahoma, have tried to fill the regulatory gap by introducing measures that require state education departments to develop guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence, which schools can refer to when formulating their own policies.
Overall, these states have not imposed strong restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms. Most have simply asked educational departments to develop guidelines based on current student data privacy and security regulations, advocating for responsible and transparent use of this technology.
New York Mayor Mamdani (second from the left) New York Mayor’s Photo Office
According to reports, new regulations in New York City generally prohibit the use of personal electronic devices in classrooms for students from preschool to second grade. It is recommended that students in grades three to five limit their screen time to no more than 30 minutes per day, and for middle school students, the maximum time is 45 minutes.
Mamdani stated that New York City will discontinue or shut down the artificial intelligence modules in 38 educational software products that were previously approved but do not meet new safety and regulatory standards. The Senior Education Advisor to the First Vice Mayor of New York City cited AI reading assistance software AmiRa as one of the products on the list of banned items. She added that if a product cannot disable its artificial intelligence functions, New York City will not purchase it.
However, Mamdani emphasized that a different approach will be adopted for high school students. He stated that teenagers grow up in an environment where “artificial intelligence is everywhere”.
