{"id":10686,"date":"2026-05-02T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-high-school-cancelled\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:15:00","slug":"ai-high-school-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-high-school-cancelled\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-Powered High School Scrapped After Protests Erupt Against It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A planned AI-focused high school is being put on ice after widespread backlash, The New York Times <\/em>reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Originally set to open in Manhattan at the start of the next academic year, the New York City schools chancellor Kamar Samuels said he was withdrawing the proposal for the Next Generation Technology High School, which was scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, along with proposals for several other schools that were also met with criticism.<\/p>\n

Parents have railed against the Next Gen school, fearing that it would be forcing unproven tech onto students. The long-term cognitive effects of AI, not to mention its efficacy as a teaching tool, are still largely unknown, but research into the tech\u2019s short term impact is grim: various studies have linked it to short term memory loss,<\/a> and found it atrophies critical thinking<\/a>. Teachers and professors tend to agree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Samuels responded to the uproar by directing the city\u2019s education department to draft guidelines on AI use in the classroom<\/a>. But the resulting AI \u201cplaybook\u201d was criticized for dodging key issues, and did little to appease concerned parties.<\/p>\n

A crowd of parents, teachers, and high schoolers gathered outside City Hall earlier this month<\/a> to implore Mayor Mamdani to go over his schools chancellor Samuels and impose a two-year moratorium on using AI in the classroom. Mamdani hasn\u2019t indicated interest in the idea, but the anti-AI sentiment is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intense outrage among parents in New York City is as great as I\u2019ve seen it on any education issue that I\u2019ve been working on for 25 years,\u201d Leonie Haimson, an education advocate in New York City and member of the Coalition for an AI Moratorium, told the NYT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gregory Faulkner, charmain of the panel that was set to vote on the school proposal, said that the vast majority of the emails he received from parents were critical of the AI school. Had it gone to a vote, he believed that no one would have voted in favor of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s anything that even has a hint of AI, there\u2019s strong opposition to it,\u201d Faulkner told the NYT<\/em>. \u201cPeople are very nervous about the technology and how it is going to be used.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Next Gen school, which would\u2019ve opened in Manhattan\u2019s financial district, also drew concerns over equity. As a selective school, it would admit students based on their grades, a process that\u2019s been accused of exacerbating segregation<\/a>. \u201cPoor kids and kids of color wind up in one school system, and wealthy and privileged wind up in another,\u201d Faulner told the NYT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That, paired with the fact that it was located in a wealthy part of the city, seemingly clashed with the school\u2019s ostensible mission of preparing children for an AI-dominated world. \u201cIf they\u2019re talking about this technology really being something that is going to become more global\u2026 why would we be exclusive in who can have access?\u201d Faulkner added, as quoted by Chalkbeat<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The AI-focused high school isn\u2019t completely dead yet. In the future, Samuels intends to revisit the proposals, which also involve closing and relocating several school locations on the Upper West Side.<\/p>\n

More on AI:<\/strong> Usually, Young People Embrace New Technology. Gen Z\u2019s Attitude Toward AI Should Worry the Entire Tech Industry<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post AI-Powered High School Scrapped After Protests Erupt Against It<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A planned AI-focused high school is being put on ice after widespread backlash, The New York Times reports. Originally set to open in Manhattan at the start of the next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,198,3842],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-education","category-future-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}