Google’s new AI ‘ultimatum’ sparks concern over tech giant’s power in California schools

This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for its daily newsletter.

Google has long been woven into California students’ education, with Google search, Chromebooks and Gmail quietly in the background in students’ daily lives.

But that decadeslong relationship between the search giant and education turned into the subject of a furor this week when Google announced that starting in January it plans to block K-12 students from using its search engine unless districts opt into the company’s artificial intellligence-generated version of it.  

“If a school is not comfortable with that and simply wants AI off, then they have the choice to not have Search on at all,” Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president and general manager of education, said on Monday during a virtual briefing. 

Google’s announcement comes as districts across California debate restrictions on artificial intelligence and technology use in the classroom. Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest district, has already placed restrictions on generative AI. Google’s decision could complicate such efforts, particularly because schools rely on the company’s digital workspace for daily lessons and its search engine for research and assignments. 

Lila Byock, founder of parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens, described Google’s decision as an act of “bullying.” She said in a statement that “educational value — not shareholder value — must determine” the technology that is used by students. 

“Google forced its AI products into classrooms and parents fought back,” Byock said. “Now Google is refusing to take no for an answer. The company’s hostile ultimatum is a desperate attempt to maintain its stranglehold on public education.” 

Google will block both its integrated AI tool and Google search for K-12 students unless a district decides to turn either feature on — with no option for a search engine without AI integration. The company said in a blog post on Tuesday that it will update its search function for schools by making its “Guided Learning” AI product the default. It “will offer step-by-step guided learning through problems, so that students don’t get quick answers to schoolwork,” the company said. 

The company also clarified in a post on X on Tuesday that schools can turn off its separate AI products, Gemini and Gemini Notebook, and use search, but AI Mode and AI Overview will remain integrated into Google search.

“We know there’s concern about students using AI to shortcut schoolwork, and schools have told us they want control,” the post reads. “That’s exactly why we are making these changes today to address the feedback we’ve heard from educators in recent months. And we’ll continue to engage deeply with educators to ensure we are giving schools more choice, more controls, and improved Search for learning.”

Google’s AI ‘short-circuits’ learning 

About three-quarters of American teens and tweens use or interact with the AI summaries in search results, according to a recent report by Common Sense Media. 

In a series of 180 tests, Common Sense Media researchers found that Google’s AI Mode completed students’ homework assignments for them every time. The AI feature also invented fake answers to questions, returned different answers to the same questions and cited unreliable sources such as Reddit, Facebook and YouTube. 

But at the same time, Google search, Google Drive and other Google tools support student learning in a myriad of ways, said Yvette Renteria, chief program officer at Common Sense Media. 

“We know that students use Google search, and it helps with media literacy, understanding, evaluating, analyzing resources, which are so crucial to learning,” she said. “And so, to be able to not have that as an option seems like a missed opportunity. And then, to take it away altogether also seems like a missed opportunity.” 

Common Sense Media researchers have not reviewed Google’s Guided Learning mode. Many school districts will have to decide to opt into Google’s AI-integrated search or find a new search alternative in the middle of the school year. 

Schools might have to ‘degoogle’

For some parents who have been critics of technology use in school, Google’s so-called “ultimatum” may be the extra push to get schools to reconsider their reliance on tech. 

Districts should “reclaim their authority from corporate interests and divest from Google,” Byock, founder of Schools Beyond Screens, said. 

But “degoogling,” or divesting from Google software, may be easier for individuals or smaller organizations than for school districts, said Rory Mir, director of community tech engagement at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, a digital rights nonprofit.

“The tricky thing with schools is that they enter into long contracts,” Mir said. “There’s a lot of training that goes into making sure educators know how to use these different tools, and the switch comes with real monetary costs as well as labor costs and disruption.”

Renteria of Common Sense Media said that school districts with more robust technology departments are more likely to find work-arounds to Google search, but that’s “not the case across the board, and that really changes based on the staffing structure and the funding that school districts have.” 

L.A. Unified uses a statewide purchasing arrangement for Google Workspace for Education, which includes Google Docs and Slides. It also has a new Generative AI Ad Hoc Committee. A district spokesperson told EdSource that the district is “reviewing Google’s announcement and its potential implications for schools, educators and students.”

Some parents of Long Beach Unified students, who are part of a new tech policy group that also includes teachers, students, administrators and industry experts, will “have an opportunity to provide input” into the district’s options, a district spokesperson said. The district is also in the middle of a student survey about AI use in school. 

Mir of EFF said Google’s new policy should invoke among schools a “big discussion about Google’s role as a monopolist” with “undue power over” schools’ decisions. 

“Short of that, it’s important for Google to do the right thing and offer more control over these tools to administrators and users, so they can choose the experience that is right for their students and not get swept up into these suites where it’s all or nothing,” Mir said. 

“I’m hoping,” Mir said, “that folks funnel this outrage into reevaluating these contracts [with Google] and demanding a higher bar” for students.

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