Google to schools: take our AI or lose Search. Chicago says no

Google will turn off generative AI services by default on K-12 student accounts starting next year, leaving it to school administrators to approve them. The catch: because AI is woven into Search, a school that blocks AI outright also loses Google Search. Students would see a message from their school saying the services are not available.

Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager for education, said K-12 schools will soon have to accept the company's AI services to keep student access to its search engine. That framing — accept the AI or lose the search — is what turned a product update into a fight.

The backlash has been broad. Parents and teachers criticized the announcement, some calling it extortion. Former FTC Chair Lina Khan, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the American Federation of Teachers joined the criticism. Google counters that the change expands schools' choices, and it is expanding "Guided Learning" — which walks students through problem-solving steps rather than handing over answers — into Search and Classroom.

The dispute is less about whether AI belongs in classrooms than about who decides. By bundling Search with Gemini, Google converts a pedagogical choice into an infrastructure ultimatum. Districts that want one without the other are told they cannot have it.

If other districts follow, it sets a precedent for how much control schools have over the technology their students use daily. If they don't, Google's terms become the default.

The next year will show which way districts move.