New York City Public Schools is banning more than half a million students from using artificial intelligence for the 2026-2027 academic year, the school district confirmed to ABC News. The nation’s largest school district said it will begin the school year next week with a sweeping ban on AI for students in in 2-K through eighth grade. In a statement to ABC News, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the city is implementing a moratorium on generative AI for students in pre-school or 2-K through eighth grade and will spend the next year “studying the impacts of this technology.” Mamdani wrote in part, “the tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary.” “We do not see it that way,” he added. The news comes as some education advocates have pushed for guardrails and formal guidance on AI use.

Full report : NYC’s AI ban through grade 8 sets stage for rest of the United States.