5 Lessons From NYC Schools’ New Guidance On Artificial Intelligence

The largest school district in the United States just released AI rules for over one million students. Against a background of parent petitions demanding moratoriums, community boards calling for long-term pauses and a proposal for an AI-focused high school, New York City Public Schools formally released new guidance yesterday.It could be argued that New York City Public Schools has been slow to act, given that other large school districts, including Chicago, Denver and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, have already released their AI playbooks. But, given New York City’s scale and the political complexity embedded in its public schools, this makes the new AI guidance a test case that schools around the world will be following closely.Here are five lessons every education leader can take from the newly published guidance and how NYC approached the major issues presented by AI.Lesson 1: Leading With Prohibition As A Governance ChoiceThe district’s guidance outlines a new traffic light framework, that firstly focused on what artificial intelligence should not do in their 1,600 schools. They insist that AI should not:•  Make decisions about student placement•  Make decisions about discipline•  Make decisions about promotions•  Make decisions about graduation•  Make decisions about program access•  Be used for developing plans for students with disability (IEPs or 504s)•  Assign grades•  Conduct surveillance or behavioral monitoring•  Provide counselingIt’s not difficult to see why they have given AI these boundaries. The decisions made by AI in the use cases outlined could have huge implications on a student’s school experience and consequently be life-changing. Keeping the human, who hopefully knows and cares for the individual student, at the center is a wise move.From the outset of the new guidance, it is clear that NYC Public Schools is leading with a risk-averse approach. This is not just a formatting choice in their...