NYC Schools Publish List of 38 AI Tools Banned From Classrooms

After more than a month of requests from Chalkbeat, the New York City Education Department released its full list of 38 AI-powered educational tools that have been prohibited from use in public schools under a policy announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani before the school year began. The ban targets generative AI features embedded within educational software rather than entire product suites. Notable entries on the list include Amira, an AI reading tutor used in more than 200 NYC schools, and a Microsoft-partnered chatbot the Education Department itself had previously developed and deployed. The list also includes Wordly, a translation tool aimed at English language learners, which the vendor argues should qualify for a policy exemption. Several companies whose products appear on the list quickly disabled AI components and received approval to continue operating; others disputed their inclusion, arguing their tools do not use the category of artificial intelligence the policy prohibits, and questioned the vetting process's transparency. The release of the list follows more than a month of uncertainty among schools, teachers, and ed-tech vendors about exactly which products were affected and why.