Google just told schools: take our AI, or lose the search box. Google announced Tuesday that Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Search will all be off by default for K-12 accounts, until an administrator turns each one on. That sounds like control. But Search is integrated with AI, so a school that opts out of AI altogether loses Search too. Google is by far the dominant classroom tech provider in America. 150 million students and teachers use Google Classroom worldwide. For most schools, this is the classroom. The backlash started in August, when Google switched Gemini on by default for K-12 students. New York City and Los Angeles have temporary bans on generative AI tools in elementary and middle schools. Google later clarified schools can turn Search on without the Gemini tools, but there is still no way to get Search without the AI built into it. No plain search. Former FTC chair Lina Khan called it coercion through a search monopoly. Fairplay's Josh Golin said schools should switch the AI off the minute they can. When the price of looking something up is accepting the AI, that is not a choice. It is a condition. The kids do not get a vote.
Sources:
Fast Company, Google will cut off its search engine for schools that opt out of AI
Engadget, Google says students in schools that ban AI won't have access to Search
That's your SignalWatch, from Ashfires Press.
