New York schools will ban student-facing artificial intelligence for students in elementary and middle school, reported the New York Daily News.
The New York Department of Education is set to announce the policy on Wednesday, which will affect about 600,000 students, or two-thirds of public school students in the state. The policy will also prohibit the use of individual devices for students in pre-K through second grade, and recommends a 30-minute screen time limit on individual devices for students in third through fifth grade and 45 minutes for middle school students.
“The DOE is trying to be responsive to our hearings and community input from parents and advocates, but there are certainly still more questions about the details of this plan,” New York City Council education chair Eric Dinowitz told Politico.
The policy is the most aggressive restriction of AI use by students yet, and it follows after advocates said the school system’s previous guidance on AI did not address serious risks to safety, student privacy concerns and effects on cognitive development. The decision also reflects growing backlash from parents, educators and lawmakers about students’ use of technology in learning.
California, in contrast, has a flexible AI policy that leaves rule-making and implementation up to school districts. The California Department of Education has guidance on applying the technology with “human-centered principles,” and a new bill effective in 2027 will enforce that K-12 students are taught by human educators who cannot be forced to use AI systems that may risk their employment.
This story was originally published by EdSource.