Google has set a condition on schools that want to keep its AI away from children: they lose Google Search as well. In a blog post on 3 November, Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager for education, said Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will be "entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on."
Until now, Gemini was switched on automatically for schools using Google Classroom unless a district disabled it, NBC News reports. Putting Search in the same bundle means a school that says no to AI also says no to the world's main search engine. "Search and AI are deeply integrated," Phillips told The New York Times, adding that students in those schools "will not have access to search" and will see a message from their school saying it is unavailable.
The backlash
The reaction came fast and from both sides of US politics. Senator Bernie Sanders called the policy "extortion" on X. Senator Richard Blumenthal said Google is "more concerned with forcing Gemini into schools than enabling students to succeed." Former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan said it shows "the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service", and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Google of using "its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools", according to TechCrunch and CNBC.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Google "has prioritized its business interests over the education of our children", and the children's advocacy group Fairplay said Google is trying to "strong-arm schools", NBC reports. The timing is awkward for Google: it has lost US antitrust cases over its search and advertising businesses, and Senators Blumenthal and Josh Hawley opened an inquiry last month into its push of AI into classrooms, CNBC notes.
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After the criticism, Google said schools can switch on Search by itself without the Gemini products, and that the announcements "give schools more choice, not less." But Search for students would still carry AI features such as AI-generated summaries, NBC reports, which is the part many districts wanted to switch off. Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews will guide students step by step through homework instead of handing over answers, and that it will detect when a student is using AI just to get answers.
The new Search experience starts with a pilot in select US schools later this month, and Google says it will share more details with schools in the coming months. Its Guided Learning tool, which walks students through problems instead of giving answers, is available globally in Google Classroom from 3 November.
