New York City's public schools will temporarily ban elementary and middle school students from using artificial intelligence tools during the upcoming school year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday.

The one-year moratorium - part of a broader assessment of how children in the nation's largest school system interact with the technology - will apply to "all software that uses student-facing generative AI" for students through eighth grade, the mayor's office said.

It described the policy as the most expansive prohibition in the country.