Google will entirely disable Search in schools that don’t want AI

What happened

Google announced an update regarding its education products, stating that artificial intelligence tools for K-12 student accounts will be turned off by default unless school administrators explicitly enable them (theverge.com). The revised approach affects Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Google Search (theverge.com).

However, administrators cannot disable AI features without also losing the search engine (theverge.com). According to the company, schools that choose to restrict AI will find that Google Search is entirely unavailable to students, who will instead see a notice from their school (theverge.com). Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president and general manager of education, stated that “Search and AI are deeply integrated” (theverge.com).

Why it matters

The policy leaves school districts with a difficult choice (arstechnica.com). Google is a dominant force in K-12 education, where its low-cost Chromebooks and apps like Google Classroom are widely used (seattletimes.com). Critics argue that tying internet search access to AI adoption forces educators to accept tools they may wish to avoid (cnet.com). Lawmakers and local leaders criticized the move, with former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan stating that Google was using its “search monopoly to coerce schools” into adopting AI (seattletimes.com). New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted on social media that “no corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children” (theverge.com).

Google defends the update by arguing that it provides schools with more choices and control (theverge.com). Alongside the changes, the company is introducing a new feature called Guided Learning within search and Google Classroom, designed to help students work through problems step-by-step rather than giving direct answers (gizmodo.com).

Context

The announcement follows months of growing pushback against generative AI in classrooms (seattletimes.com). In September, the nation's two largest school districts, in New York City and Los Angeles, restricted student access to generative AI on school devices (seattletimes.com). Lawmakers have also pressed tech companies regarding potential harms to children (theverge.com), and child-safety organizations recently requested that school districts disable tools like Google Gemini (cnet.com).

Richard Culatta, CEO of the educational technology nonprofit ISTE+ASCD, applauded the decision to turn off AI services by default, but noted that schools should still be able to access search engines without AI-generated results (seattletimes.com).

What we don't know yet

It remains unclear how many school districts will choose to forgo Google Search in order to keep AI out of their classrooms, or whether alternative search engines will see an influx of student users as a result (arstechnica.com). Google has stated that it will share more specific details with schools in the coming months before the changes roll out (techcrunch.com).