New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pumping the brakes on artificial intelligence for elementary and middle school students in the Big Apple — and limiting the tools that high school students have access to in classrooms. And none of the leading AI models are included on the list of approved options.
Mamdani announced the moratorium for younger students, which will last one year, on Wednesday. High schoolers, though, will have twice-yearly AI critical thinking modules and a small number of classes, numbering no more than five per school, and a series of AI pilot programs.
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The city has vetted the AI it will use, it says, with a focus on safety and data privacy standards, as well as whether student operators will be the primary thinkers, rather than the AI. (Teachers will still be permitted to use AI for instructional planning and other tasks, as long as the technology complies with the school system’s safety standards.)
“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,” said Mamdani in a statement. “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.”
The pilot programs
The city has approved five AI programs for high school students. Those students will only access the tools on an occasional basis, with some usage limited to 15 to 20 minutes per week:
Quill: Earmarked for English language arts classrooms, this system is designed to support close reading, text analysis and the use of evidence to support claims.
Edia: This math-focused program provides coaching and prompts students to explain their reasoning.
Brisk Teaching: Students can get guided practice using teacher-selected texts or videos. Teachers can also set the objectives and guardrails.
Playlab: This pilot is meant to encourage students to examine AI outputs for bias and reasoning across multiple subjects.
Intel AI-Ready Schools: Students will use this tool to identify community problems and develop AI solutions via a semester-long project.
Missing giants
The decision to bypass major AI models appears to be a deliberate one that was tied to safety and privacy concerns by the city. Mamdani did not mention OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX or any of the industry’s other well-known names specifically, but other city officials were more direct.
“The recent METR [Model Evaluation and Threat Research] OpenAI report demonstrated how easily AI models can run amok, literally learning how to lie and cheat while covering their tracks to evade being caught deviating from their original code,” said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. “Our ability to use generative AI with confidence that it won’t turn on our kids and do something else is tenuous at best.”
Concerns about AI safety aren’t limited to New York City Schools, of course. After OpenAI’s model went rogue, a bipartisan bill proposing a requirement that AI companies build a “kill switch” into their product was floated. If passed, that would require AI companies to have the ability to immediately shut down all of their advanced AI programs.
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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Zohran Mamdani picked 5 winning AI tools for NYC classrooms — and shut out ChatGPT and Claude
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