New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday announced a one-year moratorium on student use of AI through 8th grade. The temporary ban will be effective through the 2026-27 school year and will restrict the use of all student-facing generative AI. Announcing the decision at a press conference, Mamdani said he has yet to see an unbiased study demonstrating the benefits of AI for elementary and middle school education.
“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow. They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators, and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mamdani said. “The tech industry wants us to believe that AI-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We do not see it that way.”
The move impacts nearly 600,000 public school students from 2-K through 8th grade. The mayor’s office described it as “the expansive student-facing AI moratorium in the nation.”
While the moratorium places a blanket ban on AI for younger students, NYC plans to expose 50,000 high school students to the tech with rigorously tested pilot programs, including Quill, Edia, Brisk Teaching, Playlet, and Intel AI-Ready Schools. Students will be able to use these tools for a set number of minutes per week, and they will also have access to twice-yearly, 45-minute AI literacy classes “that help them think critically about AI before they begin to rely on it.” Companion AI chatbot apps, however, will be completely banned.
Teachers, meanwhile, can continue to use AI tools that comply with the New York City Public Schools’ safety standards, and students with disabilities can continue to use assistive technologies.
Alongside the moratorium, NYC also recommends new screen time limits for students. It suggests that 1:1 screen time be restricted to 30 minutes per day for students in 2nd grade, 30 minutes per day for students in 3rd through 5th grade, and 45 minutes per day for students in 6th through 8th grade. The city had banned personal cellphone use at schools last year.
The new restrictions come amid growing concerns around the negative impact of AI tools on teens. Last year, a 16-year-old took his life after allegedly discussing suicide methods with ChatGPT. Earlier this year, Character.AI settled a 2024 lawsuit brought by a mother who blamed a Character.AI avatar for her son’s death.