Ross Gerber is not a fan of New York City's new AI policy. On Wednesday, the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management took to X to mock Mayor Zohran Mamdani's one-year moratorium on student-facing AI tools, arguing that schools are repeating the same mistake they made with computers.
"All the kids use AI already. What a goof. I remember when they told me I couldn't use the computer- go use the typewriter they said..." Gerber wrote, in a post that clearly struck a chord with anyone who remembers being told to ditch the calculator.
His comments came after Mamdani announced that New York City public schools would suspend the use of roughly 40 AI-powered educational tools during the 2026-27 school year. The moratorium affects nearly 600,000 public school students from 2-K through eighth grade, making it one of the broadest AI restrictions by a U.S. school district. High school students will have limited opportunities to use AI, while teachers can still use the technology for tasks like lesson planning and scheduling.
Mamdani defended the move by emphasizing the importance of human interaction in education. "Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow," he said, adding that students need to develop skills with peers, build relationships with educators, and "wrestle with tough problems on their own."
This isn't the first time NYC schools have clashed with AI. Back in late 2022, the district temporarily blocked OpenAI's ChatGPT shortly after its launch, before reversing course in 2023 and working with Microsoft on a custom AI-powered teaching assistant. History, it seems, is repeating itself.
The debate comes at a time when the push for AI in education is gaining momentum at the federal level. In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to promote AI literacy and proficiency among American youth, including through K-12 AI education, teacher training, and public-private partnerships. And in July of this year, OpenAI rival Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers, offering verified U.S. K-12 educators free access to premium AI tools.
So, is Mamdani's moratorium a prudent pause to assess AI's impact on kids, or a goof that ignores the reality that AI is already woven into students' lives? Gerber clearly thinks it's the latter. But the mayor's office seems to believe that a year without AI in the classroom is worth it to ensure that kids learn the fundamentals first. Either way, it's a debate that's not going away anytime soon.
