Google switches off Search in schools that reject its AI

Chris Phillips, Google's vice president of education, justified the approach by saying "Search and AI are deeply integrated." Schools that switch off the AI tools "will not have access to search," he said, and students will see a message from their school saying the service is unavailable.

A reversal with a catch

The change comes only months after Google enabled its Gemini assistant by default inside Google Classroom, which is used by more than 150 million teachers and students worldwide. That decision fed skepticism about AI in classrooms, amid reports of declining test scores and effects on students' learning abilities. Last month, lawmakers pressed Google on the "potential harms" of placing its AI products in schools.

Google is no longer switching AI features on by default for schools, but opting out now carries a clear cost: losing the world's dominant search engine on student accounts.

Guided Learning moves into Search

Google is also addressing worries that students use AI to find shortcuts instead of working through problems themselves. It is building its Guided Learning feature, designed to help students reason through problems, into AI Overviews in Search. Testing in select US schools starts this month.

For school administrators, the choice is now binary: accept Google's AI across the board or give up Search for students.