No bots before high school

TL;DR: AI will be banned in the largest public school system in the country starting next week—unless you’re in high school. But New York City’s one-year ban comes with some asterisks, and it’s unclear how it’ll be enforced.

What happened: You may remember that Kentucky middle school that recently went viral for the mistake-ridden AI-generated materials it gave students—including maps with mangled state names like “Lookoong” (that’s Louisiana, in case you don’t speak AI).

It might be a sign of just how routine AI use has become in education—but now the nation’s biggest public school system is fighting against that tide. The one-year moratorium, announced today, will block about 600,000 NYC students from accessing most AI tools, like chatbots and AI tutors, at school.

These restrictions also try to dial back students’ tech exposure more broadly and cover how teachers can wield AI, too. Some of the details:

• Companion chatbots are banned for all grades.
• AI will only be allowed in specific cases even in high school—like career prep or to improve AI literacy.
• Students won’t get individual devices (like laptops) until they reach the third grade.
• And for teachers: AI for lesson planning or translating teaching material is A-OK—but not for grading or counseling students, among other things.

Partial credit: While NYC’s new policy is a notable move to rein in AI at school, some parents and advocacy groups don’t give it a passing grade—they wanted a broader, two-year moratorium on all AI use, which would cover every student as well as schools’ spending on AI tools.

Almost a quarter of kids between 9 and 17 years old use AI every day, according to a recent Common Sense Media survey. And roughly three-quarters of both middle school and high school educators say they use AI in the classroom at least weekly, per an IBM/Morning Consult survey (while about 45% of elementary educators say the same).

Easier said than banned: There are a lot of open questions around how these AI restrictions will work in practice. The benefits of school cellphone bans, for example, have been pretty muddy.

And it’s one thing to block tools like ChatGPT on school networks (NYC did just that in early 2023, then lifted it months later)—but there’s an elephant in the room that classroom bans don’t touch: kids using AI to do their homework.

Bottom line: This new AI policy takes effect next week, when NYC public schools are back in session. A few other US school districts have enacted similar no-AI rules, but the verdict is still out on whether they’re well enforced and actually improve learning. —WK