New York City schools are now off-limits to artificial intelligence tools, under a ban ordered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani's administration has barred AI tools from use across the city's public school system, the nation's largest. The move marks one of the most sweeping restrictions any major U.S. city has placed on AI in the classroom. Details on enforcement, exemptions for teachers, or a rollout timeline have not been made public. The ban lands amid a broader, unresolved argument in American schools over whether AI belongs in the classroom at all.
The reversal is notable given the city's own history. New York City schools banned ChatGPT in early 2023, then reversed that decision months later and encouraged teachers to experiment with it instead. Mamdani's ban suggests City Hall has soured on that experiment, and it puts New York among a small but growing number of jurisdictions choosing to say no to AI outright rather than manage its use.
Whether the policy survives contact with teachers who have already built lesson plans and grading routines around AI tools is the real test ahead.