There are two very different approaches emerging to AI education in schools.
New York City has introduced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI for students from 2-K through Year 8, while allowing limited, supervised use in high schools alongside compulsory AI literacy lessons.
At the same time, the United Arab Emirates has introduced Artificial Intelligence as a formal subject across public schools from kindergarten through Grade 12.
Two very different responses to the same problem.
Both approaches recognise concerns about what happens when students rely too heavily on AI, outsource their thinking and use technology without understanding its limitations.
Those are concerns I hear regularly in my work with young people in Western Australia too.
The question for schools is how we prepare students for a world where AI is increasingly difficult to avoid.
Two very different approaches to AI education in schools
New York City's new policy takes a cautious approach.
For the 2026–27 school year, student-facing generative AI is not permitted from 2-K through Year 8. High school students will have limited, teacher-supervised access to selected AI tools, and all high school students will complete AI literacy modules covering areas including how AI works, data privacy, bias and appropriate use.
The UAE has taken a very different approach.
From the 2025–26 academic year, Artificial Intelligence became a formal subject in UAE public schools from kindergarten through Grade 12. The curriculum is designed to build students' understanding of AI progressively across different age groups.
One approach puts strong limits around student-facing AI.
The other makes learning about AI part of the curriculum from the beginning of a child's education.
I think both are interesting to watch.
What are students saying about AI in education?
This is something I've been hearing directly from young people in Western Australia.
As part of my work with the Fogarty Foundation, I've been speaking with young people across WA about what role they think AI should play in education.
Again and again, I hear two things at once.
They are worried about AI.
They are worried their peers are using it too much. They are worried about what happens when we outsource our thinking. Many are uncomfortable with how quickly AI has become part of education.
But they also want AI literacy because they know it isn't going away.
That distinction matters.
Students are telling me that they don't necessarily want more AI. They want to understand the AI that is already around them.
And that goes well beyond teaching them how to prompt ChatGPT.
AI literacy needs to go beyond teaching students how to use AI
When schools talk about AI literacy, the conversation can sometimes become very focused on using generative AI tools.
How to write a better prompt.
How to use AI to brainstorm.
How to use AI for research.
How to use AI without getting caught cheating.
Those things have a place, but they are only one part of the picture.
Students also need to understand what is happening behind the technology they are already encountering.
They need to understand:
how AI systems work at a basic level
why AI can get things wrong
how bias can affect an AI output
what happens to the information they share
how to question an AI-generated answer
when AI might be useful
when they need to do the thinking themselves
how AI-generated content can affect what they see online
This is where AI education in schools becomes much bigger than teaching students to use a chatbot.
Students are interacting with AI outside the school device
Blocking an AI platform at school can change what happens on a school device.
It does not remove AI from a student's life.
Students see AI-generated summaries in search results. They encounter AI-generated videos and images. They see AI content across the platforms they use every day. They may use AI tools outside school for homework, entertainment, information or advice.
They are growing up in an environment where AI is increasingly built into the technology around them.
That means AI literacy needs to prepare them for that environment.
If we only regulate what students can access at school, we are addressing one part of the problem.
We also need to teach them how to think critically about the technology they will continue encountering outside the classroom.
Should schools restrict generative AI?
I think there is still a legitimate question about when students should have direct access to generative AI, particularly younger children.
Age matters.
Development matters.
The type of AI tool matters.
The purpose for which it is being used matters.
A six-year-old using an AI chatbot independently is very different from a Year 11 student using a carefully selected AI tool under direct teacher supervision for a specific learning task.
New York City's policy reflects some of that distinction. Younger students face much stronger restrictions, while high school students have limited, supervised opportunities to use approved tools alongside AI literacy education.
I think the New York experiment will be very interesting to watch.
We should be asking what happens to student learning, critical thinking, AI understanding and actual behaviour when access is restricted.
But we also need to look beyond the school network.
Regulation and AI literacy can work together
I don't think schools necessarily need to choose between regulation and education.
There is a place for sensible boundaries around student access to AI.
There is also a strong argument for teaching students about the technology they are already surrounded by.
These can exist together.
A school might decide that certain AI tools are not appropriate for younger students while still teaching those students age-appropriate concepts about how AI works.
A secondary school might restrict some uses of generative AI while explicitly teaching students how to question AI outputs, protect their data and recognise when they are outsourcing too much of their thinking.
That is a much broader approach to responsible AI use.
What should AI education in schools actually cover?
For schools planning their AI education, I would start with the questions students are already encountering.
What is AI actually doing?
Students need a basic understanding of how these systems work, rather than treating AI as something that simply "knows" things.
Why does AI get things wrong?
Students need to understand that a confident answer can still be inaccurate.
Can I trust what AI gives me?
This connects directly to critical thinking, misinformation and evaluating information online.
What happens to my data?
Privacy needs to be part of AI literacy from the beginning.
When should I use AI and when should I think for myself?
This is one of the most important conversations schools can have.
The goal isn't to make students afraid of AI.
It is to help them become capable of questioning it.
AI education needs to prepare students for the world they actually live in
The UAE's curriculum-first approach and New York City's moratorium give us two very different experiments to watch.
One is making AI education part of the curriculum across the entire schooling journey.
The other is putting stronger restrictions around student-facing generative AI, particularly for younger students, while still requiring AI literacy for high school students.
There is still a lot we don't know about the long-term impact of generative AI on learning.
But one thing is becoming increasingly difficult to argue with.
Students are going to encounter AI.
They already are.
So schools need to think carefully about both where AI belongs in education and what students need to know about it.
For me, that means moving beyond simply teaching students how to use AI.
They need to understand how these systems work, question what they produce and recognise when they need to put the technology down and do the thinking themselves.
That is what practical AI literacy should look like.
If your school is working out where to start, my AI literacy workshops for schools explore these issues with students in a practical, age-appropriate way. Programs such as Think Before You Prompt and Truth or Algorithm help students understand AI, question what they see and use critical thinking in a world where AI is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.
