Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-09-13 · by Samiksha Bhattacharjee
New York City was not built by people who were scared.
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who → build → people
If there was a new tool that could build higher, move faster, or make someone more money, New Yorkers grabbed it with both hands.
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Yorkers → be → hands
Which makes watching Mayor Zohran Mamdani ban artificial intelligence in public schools until ninth grade just … embarrassing.
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Mamdani → make → grade
Mamdani plans to cut off around 600,000 children from the biggest piece of technology to arrive in their lifetimes.
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Mamdani → plan → lifetimes
He calls it an effort to “get the future right” and push back against Silicon Valley.
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future → call → Valley
In other words, City Hall is panicking — and banning everything like they always do.
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they → panic → everything
Watching this from London, the stench of decline is unmistakable.
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stench → watch → decline
In Britain, our politicians have spent decades doing this exact same routine.
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politicians → spend → routine
Whenever the world changes, we don’t try to build something better.
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we → change → something
We just set up an inquiry, launch a review panel, and try to regulate the danger away.
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We → set → danger
The result is that Britain doesn’t build things anymore.
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Britain → build → things
Our economy is flat on its back, and our best talent is sprinting away.
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talent → sprint → back
Choosing safety over innovation inevitably leads to neither.
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Choosing → choose → neither
Now, NYC is borrowing Britain’s worst habit: treating ambition like it’s something to be managed.
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it → borrow → ambition
While middle schoolers are not allowed to touch AI, their teachers are still allowed to use it to plan lessons and do administrative work.
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teachers → allow → work
The state employees get the time-saver, and the children get nothing.
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children → get → nothing
When the teachers union boss, Michael Mulgrew, calls the tech “very dangerous,” he isn’t trying to protect childhood.
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he → call → childhood
He’s protecting a bloated school bureaucracy that can’t be bothered to rewrite its lesson plans.
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that → protect → plans
Which is exactly what schools need to do if they are going to meet the challenges of the modern world.
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they → need → world
Don’t get me wrong, dumping tablets on children has been an absolute disaster.
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dumping → get → children
Handing an 8-year-old a screen so an AI can think for them turns their brain to mush.
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AI → hand → mush
Children still need to sit with a book, hold a pen, do long division on scrap paper, and argue with someone looking them in the eye.
But
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Children → need → eye
we have learned, bans don’t work.
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bans → learn → ?
Students currently use and abuse AI to cut corners on their school work.
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Students → use → work
Banning AI won’t make this problem go away, but make the tech even more desirable and push its use underground.
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tech → ban → use
Worse, children from affluent families won’t be impacted by Mamdani’s plan.
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children → impact → plan
Private schools in Manhattan will hire tutors.
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schools → hire → tutors
The families who can afford it will make sure their children are five steps ahead.
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children → afford → it
Ironically, the only children being held back are the working-class families stuck in the public system.
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children → hold → system
They will be even less prepared to enter the modern workforce than their peers who already started off with an upper hand.
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who → enter → hand
Children in Singapore, Bengaluru, and Seoul are being taught to use AI, and children in NYC are being taught to fear it.
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children → teach → it
But AI is not going away, and teachers, administrators, and policymakers will have to accept that and adapt.
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teachers → go → that
That will require innovative policy, and a great deal of trial and error: new curriculum and teaching methods that work complementarily with AI rather than simply depending on it as a crutch.
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that → require → crutch
New York didn’t become the center of the world by being timid.
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York → become → world
If City Hall wants to turn the city into an open-air museum run by clueless politicians, it should just say so.
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it → want → politicians
But it shouldn’t be surprised when the rest of the world moves on.
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rest → move → world
You can find more of her work at Samiksha’s State of the Debate.
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You → find → Debate
