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Another major AI ban in schools has hit the United States — this time in Los Angeles, California.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school district in the US — placed a moratorium on the use of generative artificial intelligence on school-issued devices across all grade levels during a committee meeting on Wednesday.

“Los Angeles Unified School District is taking the time needed to address the significant risks associated with student use of generative AI,” the chief programme officer at Common Sense Media, a US nonprofit working with educators, children and parents, told the Los Angeles Times. “Much work should be done during this year, including teaching AI literacy — which doesn’t require kids to use AI.

“Many leading AI products are not designed for safety or to properly support learning,” she continued. “Our research also shows that AI use has become almost ubiquitous in the lives of American teens and tweens — and even when it’s banned at school, students use it on personal devices.”

The decision came on the heels of a similar ban in New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year ban on students using artificial intelligence through 8th grade.

In response to growing concerns about students’ reliance on technology, especially AI, particularly in the early grades, more schools in the US are now considering placing guardrails on the use of new tools.

In February, the Pew Research Centre, a non-partisan American think tank, published the findings of a survey, revealing that a majority of American teenagers are now using artificial intelligence in their academic lives.

This isn’t the first time the Los Angeles Unified School District has introduced measures to curb over-reliance on technology in the classroom. In 2024, the district’s board voted to ban mobile phones from its classrooms.