GOOGLE TO SWITCH OFF AI AND SEARCH BY DEFAULT FOR SCHOOL ACCOUNTS

Google is to switch off its Gemini artificial intelligence tools and Google Search by default for school pupils' accounts, covering children up to 18. Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager for education, announced the change in a blog post, saying it followed feedback from "schools, teachers, leading researchers, and policymakers." Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will remain off until administrators switch them on. Phillips wrote: "Access to these products will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on."

Phillips told the New York Times that "Search and AI are deeply integrated," so pupils at a school that bans AI will also lose access to Search. Google does not offer schools a version of Search without AI. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticised the company after the New York Times reported the restriction. Sanders described the policy as "extortion," writing that "Google is threatening schools," while Mamdani said Google was using "monopoly power to force AI into our public schools."

Google responded on its News from Google account on X, saying "today's announcements give schools more choice, not less," and that administrators "can choose to turn ON one, two, or all of these services individually." It said Search for schools would retain AI Overviews and AI Mode in modified form, offering "step-by-step guided learning through problems, so that students don't get quick answers to schoolwork." Google plans to pilot this feature within Search at selected schools in the United States later this month. Google set no start date; the New York Times reported the changes would take effect in early 2027.