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AI wary NYC students say the tech is still sneaking into classrooms
By
Jessica Gould
Published Oct 8, 2026
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Jessica Gould
Published Oct 8, 2026
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A moratorium on most uses of artificial intelligence is in effect in New York City’s public schools, but students say the technology keeps turning up in unexpected ways.
Students said they've caught teachers and administrators using AI for slideshows, quizzes, posters and schoolwide email. While the instances they described appear to follow the letter of the moratorium, the students argue they flout the spirit of the new policy.
“We want to make sure AI is nowhere near our education,” said Juno Hayes a 17-year-old senior, who uses they/them pronouns.
Some of the students said if they’re banned from using AI, educators should be barred from using the technology, too. And given the potential social, economic and environmental costs of artificial intelligence, they said schools should be completely AI-free.
In early September, Mamdani announced new rules prohibiting all student-facing AI up through 8th grade. The technology is only allowed in high schools in certain circumstances: AI literacy classes, career-training courses, and pilot programs that haven’t started yet.
The AIM Coalition, a group of parents, educators and students critical of AI's deployment so far, said the limits the mayor announced in September are a good step, but don’t go far enough.
Hayes, a member of the coalition, said students were met with an unwelcome example of AI upon returning to school last month: A large, AI-generated poster of their school mascot, a hawk, was staring down at them.
“Me and a lot of my friends were like, ‘This sucks. We don't want this up here,’” Hayes said.
Hayes loves to draw and worries about the impact of artificial intelligence on art, labor, cognition and the environment. They pinned a note underneath the poster encouraging fellow students who object to the image to sign on. “I got a lot of signatures,” they said. The picture was eventually taken down.
“AI will never replace the expertise, judgment and relationships that teachers bring to the classroom," said Onika Richards, an education department spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “AI may only be used for instructional planning and operational tasks, not student facing instruction.”
Research shows teens, like adults, are split on AI. A study by the Pew Research Center in February found that a majority of teens nationally use chatbots for help in school, and more teens have a positive view of the technology’s potential impact on their futures than negative. But those views appear to be shifting. Gallup reported in April that excitement and hopefulness among teens was dropping, while anger is rising.
“I think for most students it's more of a 50/50 split of, ‘Oh, yeah, this is amazing. I don't have to do work,’ said Sika Agbkou, 16, a leader with the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Teen Activist Project. “And then there's also people who are concerned, saying, ‘ This harms the environment, and I don't want to integrate that into our lives.’"
'Genuine gibberish'
The students who spoke to WNYC did not want to name their schools because of concerns they could get in trouble with teachers and administrators.
Agbkou, a junior, said one of her teachers uses AI in a computer science class to generate “exit tickets,” questions that students have to answer at the end of lessons to see if they learned the material. But she said that seems hypocritical.
“It's forbidden within our classes,” she said. “ I feel like teachers are not being held to the same standards as students.”
Mayor Mamdani and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels imposed a moratorium and most use of AI in schools.
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Yelani Joseph said it's not hard to see when AI is allowed to “sneak in” to her teachers' lesson plans and materials. She's another junior who attends high school in Brooklyn and is an organizer with NYCLU's Teen Activist Project.
“It's been a habit for some of my teachers to use AI to generate the curriculum slideshows that we use,” she said.
A recent health class was a textbook example of how not to use AI.
“We were learning about periods. We were learning about pregnancy," Joseph recalled. "The slideshows that we had on reproductive health were generated to the point where the captions and the subcaptions were, like, genuine gibberish."
'It doesn't replace teachers' experience'
The American Federation of Teachers, the national union that includes New York City's United Federation of Teachers, grabbed headlines last year when it launched a new training center in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic. Union officials said the center would help teachers learn how to use AI to cut down on planning so they could focus more on students.
But union leaders have since advocated for limits on chatbots and artificial intelligence in schools.
“The problem right now is that no one has had enough training in AI, not the adults in the classroom, and certainly not our high school students,” said Mary Vaccaro, an executive officer at the city teachers union. “Our goal is to get educators the information they need to use AI safely, ethically, and as a tool to improve their practice. It doesn't replace teachers' experience, creativity, or our connection with our students."
Vaccaro urged the Mamdani administration to develop "courses for older students so they can understand AI and not be derailed by it."
Multiple students recently described a decline in trust between teachers and students since ChatGPT emerged earlier this decade. Agbkou said a teacher accused her of using AI on an essay two years ago.
“It made me feel angry because, as a student, I don't feel like I gave any reason not to trust me,” she said.
She said her dad showed the teacher the sequence of her work in Google Docs to prove she hadn’t cheated.
Joseph said the irony is that many teachers are using AI software to detect whether students have been using AI on assignments – and often the detection software gets it wrong.
“ They're being allowed to just check our work with AI, even though that AI might not be 100% accurate,” she said. “And it could lead to kids getting failing grades on their assignments because they're being accused of using AI even though that's not the case.”
The students with the New York Civil Liberties Union and the AIM coalition have testified at school board meetings and City Council hearings. Hayes is circulating a petition to strip all AI from schools.
The education department said it will be offering training to educators on responsible use of AI. Officials said they would look into any allegations of teachers not complying with the limits on AI.
Hayes cautioned that the long-term debate is just getting started.
“Yes, it’s good to have some regulations,” Hayes said of the city's current AI moratorium. “It’s up to us to make sure that people understand the fight is not yet won.”
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new york city
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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