Google ties K-12 Search access to enabling AI tools
Google plans to turn AI off by default for K-12 accounts, but schools that reject it entirely will lose Google Search for students.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Google plans to make its artificial-intelligence tools off by default in K-12 student accounts, giving administrators a choice over whether to enable them. But under the new Google AI schools search access policy, districts that decline the tools altogether will also remove Google Search from those student accounts.
The change is expected early next year, according to reporting by The New York Times carried by The Seattle Times. It reverses an August Classroom setting that had made AI features the default for some schools that had separately allowed student access to Gemini.
Can schools keep Google Search while turning off AI?
No. Google education vice president Chris Phillips said Search and AI are “deeply integrated.” If a school does not enable AI, he said, students will not be able to use Google Search through their school accounts and will instead see a notice that the school has made it unavailable.
The policy applies to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search, Ars Technica reported. Administrators must choose to enable the group of services rather than select an AI-free version of Google Search.
What options will schools have?
Schools that enable AI will have two search experiences for student accounts, beginning in early 2027, according to The Seattle Times. One is standard Google Search with AI Overviews and AI chats, similar to the consumer service. The other is Guided Learning, a Google feature the company says is designed to take students through a topic step by step rather than supply answers directly.
Keep AI disabled: Students do not get Google Search in their school accounts.
Enable standard AI: Students get search with AI Overviews and AI chat features.
Enable Guided Learning: Students get Google’s tutoring-style AI experience in Search and Classroom.
Google has said its generative AI products can make mistakes, Ars Technica reported. The company describes Guided Learning as assistance meant to support learning without giving students all the answers.
Why are educators and advocates objecting?
The policy has drawn criticism from people who want schools to control AI features without losing a widely used search tool. Richard Culatta, chief executive of education technology nonprofit ISTE+ASCD, welcomed Google’s decision to make AI opt-in but said schools should be able to offer search without AI-generated results. The Seattle Times noted that ISTE+ASCD has received funding from Google and other technology companies.
Former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan called the approach coercive, arguing that Google was using its position in search to push schools toward AI adoption. That is Khan’s characterization of the policy, not a legal finding reported in the available accounts.
For school administrators, the confirmed choice is narrow: restrict Google AI and lose Google Search within school accounts, or enable one of Google’s AI-supported search options. The reports do not say that students would be barred from using other search engines or web access outside that school-account setting.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.