Daria Ng

Head of K-12 Initiative at Cornell Tech

Daria Ng is the head of the K-12 initiative at Cornell Tech.

Ng says: 

“This new policy reflects an important conversation about the role technology should play in students’ learning. The question isn't simply whether students should use AI or devices in school, but when, how, and for what purpose.

“Developmentally appropriate guardrails around AI and device use can be valuable, particularly as students build foundational skills in literacy, problem-solving, and critical thinking. At the same time, technology can support learning when it is used intentionally and in service of clear educational goals.

“As AI becomes an increasingly important part of society, students also need opportunities to build AI literacy and understand how these tools work so they can be ethical, responsible users, creators, and critical consumers of technology. The goal should be to ensure technology supports learning and human connection, rather than replacing them.”

Ashley Shea

Ph.D. candidate

Ashley Shea is a PhD candidate in the field of communication at Cornell University, with a focus on the role of social media and technology in information literacy.

Shea says: 

“As technologies including artificial intelligence increasingly mediate how people discover ideas, solve problems, and make decisions, we should consider not only the tasks that they alter, but also the developmental experiences they may diminish.

“Many technologies are intentionally designed to reduce friction and discomfort, resolve uncertainty, and promote rapid attentional shifts. While these features can create efficiencies that are beneficial in certain contexts, they may also be harmful if reducing opportunities to develop self-regulation, resilience, independent thinking, and rich social understanding. These capacities serve as critical building blocks for social, emotional and cognitive development in childhood and adolescence, and continue to shape functioning throughout emergent adulthood.

“Across these developmental periods, the brain’s prefrontal cortex continues to develop, making individuals particularly sensitive to social feedback and immediate gratification. As a result, the design of learning and information environments is especially important.”

Kimberly Kopko

Associate Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension

Kimberly Kopko is an expert in child development at Cornell University who has researched the importance of play in education.

Kopko says:

“New York City's decision to ban AI for teaching students below ninth grade reflects what the child development research has shown for decades: that the early years are the most critical for building so many of the important developmental skills—cognitive, emotional, social—and are not the right time to substitute technology for the human relationships, hands-on experiences, and teacher-guided instruction that actually build these skills.

“The ban is pro-child development, not anti-innovation. What children below ninth grade need most cannot be delivered by an AI tool; those skills are built through interaction, play, challenge, and the kind of sustained relationship between a child and a caring adult that cannot be approximated by an algorithm.

“The critical question going forward is not whether to ban AI but rather what it will be replaced with, and whether schools have the resources, the research guidance, and the trained educators to ensure that what replaces AI is not simply less technology but more of what children need most.”