New York’s AI Education Policy Landscape

Student Population : 2,451,400

Official Policies

No AI Policies listed on NYSED main site.

In the News

As of April 2023, NYSED released a statement stating that “instructional decisions, including methods, tools, curriculum, and resources utilized, are a local decision”.

Universities

NYU has a large collection of resources regarding AI, including definitions, policy suggestions, invitations to workshops and blog posts providing answers to FAQs by educators, students, researchers, and administrators.

Columbia University: As of September 2023, Columbia posted new strict Generative AI guidance for its community, stating that “unless an instructor for a course explicitly allows students to use AI tools for their assignments or exams, students caught using AI will be deemed in violation of academic integrity”. The university also has a resource for K-12 educators called “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom”, which provides “a brief introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools, specifically ChatGPT, along with several strategies they might consider for navigating or engaging with these tools in their courses”.

Cornell University: As of the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, Cornell posted a new AI resource offering “preliminary guidelines for using these rapidly evolving technologies in ways that uphold the university’s core values of purposeful discovery and free and open inquiry and expression”. The page links to a variety of further guidance, resources, and events for the Cornell community.

Johns Hopkins‘ Whiting School of Engineering has an online resource called “Teaching & Learning in the ChatGPT Era” in which it offers “resources on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in higher education—particularly the increasing use of text-generating tools such as ChatGPT and Bard”.

School Districts

New York City School District (Population 995,336): In January 2023, NYC banned the use of ChatGPT in the classroom due to the fact that it “does not build critical thinking skills”, and “concerns about negative impacts on student learning , and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content”.

In May 2023, they reversed the decision to ban ChatGPT, and in September the NYCDoE partnered with Microsoft to create an AI-powered teaching assistant.

In November 2023, they launched an AI Policy Lab “focusing on human-centered AI implementation, equity, safety, ethics, effectiveness, and transparency”.