New York City has pulled the plug on generative artificial intelligence in its youngest classrooms. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, standing alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani, laid out a 12-month freeze this week on generative AI tools that interact directly with students, reaching every child from the 2-K preschool track through eighth grade in the nation's largest public school system, according to the Mayor's Office. Roughly 600,000 kids — about two out of every three students in the system — fall under the freeze, which begins with the 2026-27 school year starting September 10.
