[MUSIC - NYC Now: Intro]

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. The Department of Education will soon release guidance on AI in public schools. On today's episode, we'll hear from some students, parents, and teachers about their thoughts on using artificial intelligence in the classroom, but first, here's what's happening in our region. An epic blizzard began wrapping up Monday afternoon, but not without disrupting New York City's public schools, public transit, and some road closures.

The National Weather Service says the storm is one of the top 20 biggest snowfalls in New York City history, dumping more than a foot of snow on our region. WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein was out and about, reporting Monday morning as sheets of snow were falling. She joins us now. Brittany, I hope you've thawed out by now.

Brittany Kriegstein: Yes, just about tonight. [chuckles]

Janae Pierre: Good, good. I know you left your home and traveled to the Brooklyn Promenade and then went to Fort Greene Park. What was it like commuting in all of that snow?

Brittany Kriegstein: Well, it was tricky. I suited up; ski pants, gloves, layers, a hood, the whole deal, and I left home around 5:45 AM. First, I actually headed to the Barclays Center just because I wanted to see what a busy transit hub would be like today, and I have to say, it was eerily quiet for rush-hour time. Usually bustling with people getting to work, and cars and trucks. There was practically no one out there, and that was true through most of the subway stations I visited early Monday morning.

They were mostly practically empty, but I will say the subways were running more or less as normal, which was good to see. Yes. The hardest part was walking around. Now, Janae, the Olympics are over, but I felt like I was in an Olympic sport just getting around the city.

[laughter]

It was that difficult.

Janae Pierre: I'm sure.

Brittany Kriegstein: Most of the sidewalks aren't cleared, so I'm walking in the plowed streets. I'm tripping over piles from the last snowstorm that are covered. I needed a boat practically to get through some of the slush puddles that are already out there, and you never know how deep those go, so it was definitely treacherous. I'd say anyone out there Monday truly deserved a medal.

Janae Pierre: Yes, Britt. You can go home with the gold for sure. For sure.

Brittany Kriegstein: Thank you so much.

Janae Pierre: We know that Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, Sunday. Then, Mayor Mamdani announced a travel ban, Sunday night into Monday afternoon. Where does that stand now?

Brittany Kriegstein: Well, Mamdani announced, around noon Monday, that the travel ban in New York City was lifted, but he cautioned that roads around the city would still be icy.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: I continue to encourage all non-emergency traffic, cars, trucks, scooters, and e-bikes to remain off the roads.

Brittany Kriegstein: He says New Yorkers should be really careful, drive slowly, stay home as much as possible, and I saw some cars stuck out there as I traveled around myself, so I'd say driving is probably still not the best idea.

Janae Pierre: Absolutely. I know I'm going to stay put for sure. Students had some good news. Monday was the first full Snow Day since 2019 for New York City Public Schools. Any update on classes, Tuesday?

Brittany Kriegstein: Yes, Mamdani actually had a presser about that at 1:00 PM.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: I hope our students enjoy their Snow Day today and stay warm and safe throughout, but I do have some tough news to share. School will be in-person tomorrow. You can still pelt me with snowballs when you see me.

Brittany Kriegstein: That means back to school for students around the five boroughs, which obviously is unfortunate. Though the bulk of the storm has already passed, another 2-ish inches were expected to fall throughout the later afternoon, Monday, according to Mamdani, so it still remains to be seen how efficiently the city will dig out from that. Most places around the city got more than 15 inches so far, so time will tell just how quickly New Yorkers can get back on their feet, get those sidewalks cleared, get those subway entrances cleared, and all of that to really be able to resume normal life again.

Janae Pierre: Yes. I want to go back to the January snowstorm. That one led to more than 20 deaths. Have any deaths been reported in this blizzard?

Brittany Kriegstein: Not so far as we've heard yet. My colleagues and I have been communicating with the NYPD and City Hall, but they haven't really announced anything like that yet, thankfully. Now, officials have been adamant about spreading the word to vulnerable people out there. Mamdani, on Sunday, deployed 22 warming buses citywide and opened warming centers at 11 city-run hospitals and 13 schools, and he said homeless outreach teams would be out trying to just convince people to get indoors, but that information just doesn't always reach everybody. I spoke to a woman Monday morning who was waiting for a bus near Brooklyn Hospital.

She said she had just been discharged and was trying to get back to a nearby homeless shelter, and, Janae, when I asked her if she knew where to go if the bus didn't come, she said she wasn't sure. She said she hadn't heard about the warming centers in the neighborhood, so it's tough to get that information out to some of these folks.

Janae Pierre: Yes, I'm sure. How was the city better prepared for this storm, compared to the last one?

Brittany Kriegstein: Well, I think the full magnitude of this storm and its effects remains to be seen. I think we'll have a better idea of all that, Tuesday and later this week, but so far, I spoke to Jason Levy, who's a Department of Sanitation worker, and he was driving a salt spreader around Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Soho from 6:00 PM Sunday night to 6:00 AM Monday. He says last month's storm really helped the team gel like a well-oiled machine before this major blizzard.

Jason Levy: To see a storm of this caliber, but to have the warm-up storm beforehand really helped us get into the groove of things, get into the swing of things, get how the shifts are all working out, how to get on the plows when change-of-shift and things like that. We were really, really prepared for it.

Brittany Kriegstein: Besides his own crew, Levy says more New Yorkers seem to heed warnings to stay off the streets this time around, which really helped the plows and spreaders do their jobs.

Janae Pierre: Yes, but I know that New Yorkers didn't stay off the streets for too long. Brittany, did you see anyone out there having fun in the snow, or are people just over it?

Brittany Kriegstein: Oh, yes, I saw a lot of joy out there for sure on Monday, maybe even more than I expected. It wasn't just kids, and some of them told me they were excited to take advantage of the blizzard before logging on for work.

Anna Feldman: Oh, my name is Anna Feldman, and I'm sledding.

Brittany Kriegstein: You're sledding? What are you using? Can you describe this?

Anna Feldman: A kitchen pan. It was too big for my girlfriend's oven, so we are using it to sled today, and it's really good, so I'd recommend.

Brittany Kriegstein: How many runs have you taken so far?

Anna Feldman: Probably 20.

Brittany Kriegstein: 20 runs?

Anna Feldman: I have to work at 9:00, so we're trying to pack it in.

Brittany Kriegstein: It shows that you're never too old for the magic of seeing New York City become a winter wonderland, as long as you do it safely.

Janae Pierre: Yes, you're absolutely right. As long as you do it safely and be aware, be cautious, because under that blanket of snow, there may be some dog poop.

Brittany Kriegstein: That's right. There were a lot of dogs out there, and I have to believe that some poop went unscooped.

Janae Pierre: [laughs] That's WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein. Thanks a lot, Britt.

Brittany Kriegstein: Thank you, Janae.

[MUSIC - NYC Now: Interlude]

Janae Pierre: In other local news, this year's Met Gala theme has officially been announced, and it's-- drumroll, please-- "Fashion Is Art." The heady dress-code concept is meant to highlight the Costume Institute's corresponding exhibition, Costume Art. Start getting those outfits ready if that's your thing. The 2026 Met Gala will take place on Monday, May 4th.

[MUSIC - NYC Now: Interlude]

Janae Pierre: Still to come; should AI be used in schools? The Department of Education will soon release its guidance on the use of artificial intelligence. More on that after the break.

[MUSIC - NYC Now: Interlude]

Janae Pierre: New York City is about to announce new guidance for AI in public schools. City officials say this guidance will be released this month, but teachers and students have been saying for years that the school system has been too slow to respond to this transformative technology, which they say has already changed education for better and for worse. WNYC Education Reporter Jessica Gould is here to talk us through some of the impacts. Hey, Jessica.

Jessica Gould: Hey.

Janae Pierre: All right, so we know that AI has simply become a part of everyday life for a lot of people, and it's become a lot more prevalent in work and education in the past few years. What do the students that you've been talking to say about all of this?

Jessica Gould: Yes, I talked to a bunch of kids outside of Murrow High School, which is in Midwood in Brooklyn, and they had a lot to say about it. I talked to someone named Alessia Mazewski, and she says that high school has really changed over the past two years, specifically since the introduction of ChatGPT. She says she only uses AI for studying and sources.

Janae Pierre: All right.

Alessia Mazewski: I don't use it that much, honestly, only to-- I can use ChatGPT to say, like, "Hey, what are some sources that are good for this sort of topic?" For school work and stuff.

Jessica Gould: Yes, and then you go to the sources?

Alessia Mazewski: Yes, and then I check them out.

Jessica Gould: She says she knows classmates who totally rely on AI for their schoolwork.

Alessia Mazewski: I know this person who passed an entire class just using AI. He would go, "Oh, I did not even look at the essay that I just submitted."

Jessica Gould: Another student I talked to, Ruthie Silver, says she also uses AI for study guides.

Ruthie Silver: I use it to help me study most of the time. If I'm too lazy to make flashcards, I just send a photo and then see what happens. Then if I don't like it, then I'll just do it myself, yes.

Jessica Gould: It's for study guides?

Ruthie Silver: Yes.

Jessica Gould: What about, for getting help on homework, like take-homes?

Ruthie Silver: I've used it a couple of times if I just really try it, and I don't get the work, but otherwise, I don't really use it.

Jessica Gould: What do you use?

Ruthie Silver: My brain? [laughs]

Jessica Gould: No, no. I mean, like ChatGPT or whatever.

Ruthie Silver: Oh, chatgpt, yes.

Jessica Gould: Yes. Okay, cool, but good to use your brain. I'm in favor.

Ruthie Silver: Yes, thank you.

Janae Pierre: Makes me curious to know what those study guys actually look like. Are you saying that they're not using it for essays or stuff like that?

Jessica Gould: Maybe I happened upon a group of very virtuous kids, but they were saying that they don't use AI for anything that would be considered plagiarism, but they say that the teachers have really shifted the way that school operates because of concerns about plagiarism.

Janae Pierre: It's changed the school environment.

Jessica Gould: Yes, so they're doing a lot more of their work in class; in-class essays, in-class exams. At the same time, teachers tell me, because they have to do so many of their assignments in class, there really isn't time to cover as much territory as they used to.

Janae Pierre: Yes. Jessica, can you tell me more about that broken trust you found?

Jessica Gould: Yes. I spoke with Evelyn Harris, who is also a Senior at Murrow, and Alessia Mazewski again.

Alessia Mazewski: It's like just a loop.

Evelyn Harris: Yes, like you don't want us to use AI, but you're using AI to check if we're using AI, and sometimes, it flags as the wrong thing. I know somebody; she had to redo an entire essay because the teacher had used AI to check her essay, and it said that she plagiarized it.

Jessica Gould: She hadn't?

Evelyn Harris: Yes, she hadn't. No, no, no. She could prove, in the documents, the time she edited and stuff, she completely wrote it.

Jessica Gould: Wow, that's rough.

Evelyn Harris: That's rough.

Alessia Mazewski: Yes, it just basically has us jump through more hoops to try to prove that what we wrote was human, and it's a little demotivating sometimes.

Jessica Gould: She says AI is creating this kind of loop where teachers are reliant on AI tools to check if students are using AI, and students are using AI to disguise it from their teachers.

Janae Pierre: Yes, for plagiarism?

Jessica Gould: Right.

Janae Pierre: Yes. Let's talk about plagiarism a bit. I know we're still waiting on the Department of Education's guidance, but what has been said so far on AI use as plagiarism?

Jessica Gould: Yes. The DOE has been inconsistent in its policy toward AI. For example, when ChatGPT launched: first, the city banned it in public schools, and they cited negative impacts on student learning, and then they lifted the ban. David Banks, who was Schools Chancellor at the time, said the knee-jerk fear and risk overlooked the potential of generative AI to support students and teachers, and we hear a lot of the idea that this is the reality now. It's inevitable.

Janae Pierre: Yes. Basically, Chancellor Banks was saying that AI is here to stay, and we have to learn how to use it in schools?

Jessica Gould: Yes, but according to the Education Department, it is plagiarism for students to use AI to answer questions on homework and tests, and the consequences can range from parent conferences to suspension. The problem is that teachers say it's really hard to prove.

Janae Pierre: Hard to prove, so what are they doing about it?

Jessica Gould: Well, teachers told me they've been looking for these AI tells.

Janae Pierre: AI tells?

Jessica Gould: Yes, like clues like 'M' dashes and semicolons, very common in AI, apparently, and words like "tapestry," "delve," and "nuanced." Teachers say sometimes kids are using vocabulary that is obviously beyond what they've learned so far. Sometimes they're referencing material that's beyond what they've learned so far. They say that AI-detection software often isn't accurate, so there's only so much these teachers can do. On top of that, as we heard, students are using software to disguise the content they're copying.

Sometimes it gets a little ridiculous, a little humorous. I talked to Michael Dowd, a history teacher in Brooklyn, who says students have turned in papers referring to the Cuban Rocket Emergency.

Janae Pierre: [chuckles] Wait, you mean the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Jessica Gould: Right. Then, other AI mishaps, he's seen students turning in papers referring to "President Shrub" instead of "President Bush." His colleague graded a paper that referred to the "Trail of Tears" as the "Path of Tears."

Janae Pierre: Man, "President Shrub" is hilarious to me. This has to be frustrating for teachers. I know you talked to some of them who are more optimistic about AI. You spent some time at a new training session. Can you tell me about that?

Jessica Gould: Yes, the teachers' union, the local United Federation of Teachers, which is under the National American Federation of Teachers, announced a partnership with big tech over the summer to create a new AI training institute. It's called the National Academy for AI Instruction, and OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic are all involved. They put $23 million into it.

Janae Pierre: Wow.

Jessica Gould: It's headquartered right here in the city at the UFT's headquarters.

Janae Pierre: That is quite the investment.

Jessica Gould: It is. I went to a session last fall to check it out, and I talked to the teachers there. Some of them did say that they're concerned students using AI won't develop critical thinking skills for themselves, and that they may be more susceptible to misinformation, but they said that the AI tools could also help, especially with the back-end work that they do, like lesson planning, handouts, and worksheets. That sort of thing. The kind of paperwork that teachers say builds up so much that it prevents them from having the time to really connect with students.

I talked to Jessica Tran, who teaches English to newcomer students and students learning English at a middle school in Queens. She says AI can help her tailor the work that the students do to their exact proficiency level. Help with communicating to them in their native languages.

Jessica Tran: AI is up-and-coming, and students are starting to use it for their assignments, too, without us guiding them, in a way. I've been using AI on my own to help me with lesson plans since I have a wide range of students with different language levels. I have students that speak Spanish, Chinese, Arabic. I had students that speak French, so they're coming from all different backgrounds.

Jessica Gould: Tony Chan, another Queens' teacher, says she also uses AI herself to help with translations for students, but she doesn't condone students using it.

Tony Chan: I think that it's essential only because, like you said, we got to get ahead of the curve. It's not going away, so it's better to be on top of it. However, I don't condone student use because I think that it's really important, at this stage, for them to develop the ability to think.

Janae Pierre: Jess, besides students and teachers, I know that there's a lot of parents who are concerned about AI in schools, about big tech partnering with the teachers' union, and companies pushing curricula that has AI in it. What are these parents saying?

Jessica Gould: They talked about some of the same things that the teachers have talked about, about kids' brains and their learning. They're worried about privacy. They're also worried about the environmental impact of AI. I talked to Sarah Gentile, a parent in Brooklyn, who was really alarmed last year when she learned that her kindergartner's class was using voice recording technology as part of the new literacy curriculum.

Janae Pierre: Was she informed about this?

Jessica Gould: She didn't have to sign any releases or anything. When she heard about the voice recording, she asked that her daughter not participate because she was worried about the tech company having access to her daughter's voice and the potential for data breaches. Now her daughter and one other child in the class sit in the corner doing a separate activity while their classmates are using the voice app. I talked to the curriculum company, and they say this information is always deleted and they have a lot of protections in place, but parents are concerned, and many of them have signed a petition pushing for a two-year moratorium on all AI in classrooms.

At the same time, the Oversight Panel for the DOE, which is responsible for voting on contracts, has been rejecting all contracts for software that includes any AI in it. They say they don't want to approve it until the DOE has guidance in place about what their policy is, but there's a concern by members of that panel that big tech companies are really pushing software aggressively on the Education Department at this time, before there's a clear policy one way or another.

Janae Pierre: I am curious to see this guidance when it comes out. When are we expecting that?

Jessica Gould: It should be any day now. I've heard they're putting final touches on it.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Education Reporter Jessica Gould. Thanks a lot, Jess.

Jessica Gould: Thank you.

Janae Pierre: What are your thoughts? Is AI a helpful tool or a risk for students? Hit us up. Let us know at NYC Now at wnyc.org. We might use your comments in a future episode. I'm Janae Pierre. See you next time.

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