Schools scramble after Google gives AI ultimatum

Schools are scrambling after Google said Tuesday that education leaders need to either accept some AI in classrooms or lose access to its search engine.

School officials trying to push back on an encroaching AI are in a bind. The tech giant dominates search online, and it didn’t give much time for districts to make their decisions.

District leaders say a fight would be a big undertaking, but some may be up to the challenge, especially as public outcry after the announcement grows.

Google announced that early next year its Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search will automatically be turned off for school districts and administrators will have to choose to opt into the features. However, the company said Search and AI are “deeply integrated”, and it will not be possible to turn on Google Search without accepting AI.

The company is updating its Search feature, so AI Overviews “will offer step-by-step guided learning” instead of instantly giving students the answers, but that does not offer comfort to the public.

“Google is trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. “No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children.”

AI in schools has become a growing issue as parents and school leaders contemplate how to integrate a technology that is increasingly used in the workforce but viewed with extreme skepticism by critics.

New York City is among multiple localities that has banned AI completely for younger students but still makes it available in some capacity for high schoolers.

“It’s a small microcosm of the issue of AI in our world and AI in school districts, and then how school districts operate,” said Clay Lavercombe, freshman principal at Springboro High School in Ohio.

“To change anything in the middle of a school year, big or small, I think is a challenge. I would hope that leaders would consider that, and maybe even Google would consider that — to allow school districts to determine what they want to do, but I’m sure that there’ll be some school districts, big and small, who say, ‘We cannot use Google, and we’ll have to figure something else out,'” he added.

But abandoning Google is not as simple as just switching search engines. An estimated 60,000 K-12 schools use Google Workplace, meaning teachers and students have integrated their work in Google emails, sheets and slides, according to Tech & Learning. Around 93 percent of U.S. public schools either use or plan on using Google Chromebooks in classrooms, About Chromebooks reported.

“I really think Google risks undermining its own position. They’ve had a tremendous amount of market share, but they’re ultimately forcing these schools and districts to choose between access to the information that they already have and controlling over how students use AI,” said Eric Gibbs, vice president of education at AI detection company Copyleaks, which works with schools around the country on AI usage.

Google did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Advocacy groups had been pushing for the company to turn off its AI features on Google Search after discovering the platform would easily complete a homework assignment for students or give them all the answers.

“We were really calling on Google to turn it off, recognizing that was probably the best way to ensure that kids were safe online and that we ensured that AI was not doing homework and schoolwork for kids,” said Yvette Renteria, chief programs officer at Common Sense Media.

“And so, when Google puts out this choice of ‘You can only use Google Search with AI or you don’t use it at all,’ it’s really disturbing because, again, it takes away the opportunity to provide critical thinking skills, which is so important in education,” she added.

A May 2026 Gallup poll said 50 percent of the U.S. workforce uses AI at least a few times a year and 15 percent uses the technology daily. That usage is expected to increase in the future.

Schools have tried several times to ban the technology due to cheating concerns, and some teachers have even switched assignments from online to in-person writing to avoid AI.

AI supporters don’t think the fight is worth having.

The Google announcement “doesn’t bother me tremendously. I actually think AI is a useful tool. That, but we also have to have to teach our kids how to use AI. It’s a tool that has to be taught, similar to how to use safe internet practices or how to search on YouTube, use YouTube in appropriate ways. But it’s a tool that’s only going to get bigger, and … that genie’s not going back in the bottle,” said Dustin Strickland, an administrator at North Murray High School in Florida.

“AI is here. It’s part of what is going to be part of our students’ lives. So rather than burying our head in the sand, I think we have to learn, have to teach our kids how to use it effectively,” he added.