Google Disables Search for K-12 Schools Rejecting AI — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Google told The New York Times and separately announced in a Tuesday education update that Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will be “entirely off” for K-12 student accounts unless administrators explicitly turn them on.
- Chris Phillips said “Search and AI are deeply integrated,” adding that schools rejecting the AI features would have no Search access and students would see a notice from their school.
- Google argues the change gives schools “more choice, not less” because administrators can enable or disable services individually, though the policy bars them from switching off Gemini-powered features while retaining Search.
- Gemini had been on by default inside the Google Classroom app months earlier, drawing skepticism amid reports of declining test scores and other impacts on students’ learning abilities; the app is used by more than 150 million teachers and students globally, and last month lawmakers pressed Google about potential harms.
- Bernie Sanders called the move “extortion”; NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said no corporation should dictate how children are taught, and California Secretary Rohit Chopra said Big Tech should not “strong-arm schools.”
- Guided Learning will be embedded in AI Overviews in Search and tested in select U.S. schools this month, with the feature intended to help students work through problems rather than take shortcuts.
Why it matters: For K-12 administrators, the material change is a bundled choice: keep AI enabled to retain Search, or reject the AI and lose the search tool for student accounts. After months of default-on Gemini in a Classroom app used by more than 150 million teachers and students, the policy moves activation to administrators without separating Search from the AI decision.
Ask SkimNews
