Google is entirely disabling Search in schools that don't want AI

Google is turning off Search entirely for K-12 student accounts in schools that decline its AI features, the company told The New York Times. The change was also outlined in a broader education update Google published Tuesday. Under the policy, access to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Google Search will be fully off for those accounts unless administrators explicitly enable them.

Administrators cannot keep Search while switching off the Gemini-powered tools. Chris Phillips, Google's vice president of education, told the NYT that Search and AI are tightly integrated. He said schools that disable Google's AI features will lose access to Search and will see a message from their school indicating it is unavailable. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

The decision follows Google's move months earlier to enable its Gemini AI assistant by default inside the Google Classroom app, which is used by more than 150 million teachers and students globally. That default activation heightened skepticism about Google's push of AI into schools, amid reports of declining test scores and other effects on students' learning abilities. Last month, lawmakers pressed Google over the potential harms of placing its AI products in schools.

The block on Search drew criticism from several lawmakers and local leaders. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) described it as extortion. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said no corporation should have the power to dictate how children are taught. Rohit Chopra, California's Secretary of Business & Consumer Services, wrote that Big Tech should not be able to strong-arm schools.

Google frames the change as giving schools more choice rather than less, saying schools can switch each service on or off individually. The company is also trying to address concerns that students use its AI features to find shortcuts instead of solving problems themselves. Google is embedding its Guided Learning feature, intended to help students work through problems, into AI Overviews in Search, and will begin testing it in select US schools this month.

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