Google said on Tuesday that it will turn off artificial intelligence in its educational apps for K-12 student accounts unless school administrators expressly enable it.
The Alphabet-owned search giant said that after surveying school administrators and teachers, it wants educational institutions to control students’ access to various AI capabilities. “We believe schools should have control over AI in their classrooms and in providing administrators with controls to help them manage their approach,” Google said in a blog post.
But if schools decline to enable Google’s AI tools, such as Classroom and Notebook, for students, institutions will also lose access to Google’s search engine, the internet giant told The New York Times. AI capabilities are now deeply integrated into the tech giant’s search engine, Google’s vice president for Education, Chris Phillips, told the news outlet.
If a school has banned the use of AI by students and educators, it “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available,” he told the Times.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News.
Google’s new policy immediately prompted criticism that it is seeking to pressure schools to use its AI apps. In a statement posted on social media, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused the tech giant of “trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools.”
“No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children. Our public schools exist to serve students, not to grow the profit margins of Big Tech,” he added.
In September, New York City schools said that AI would be banned until students reach high school and implemented a one-year delay on the use of generative AI for children in 2-K through eighth grade.
Nearly 600,000 students, or two-thirds of the system’s total enrollment, will be affected. This includes all software that uses student-facing generative AI, including companion chatbots, according to education officials.
Lina Khan, who served as chair of the Federal Trade Commission from 2021 to 2025, said in a statement posted on X that Google is seeking to exploit its dominance in internet search.
“This highlights the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service,” said Khan, who now chairs the board of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit group that promotes economic growth and investment in New York.
“Multiple courts have found Google liable for violating antitrust laws, and this latest move shows it remains unchastened,” she added. “As the public increasingly pushes back against the use of AI in schools, Google is making clear it will punish those who don’t fall in line.”
