Starting Nov. 3, the web search functions on Google Classroom learning management systems at schools will be unavailable to K-12 students until school administrators explicitly turn them on, company officials announced.
The move follows the tech giant’s “Guided Learning” system updates, which involve changes to Google Search, Gemini, Gemini Notebook, and Gemini in Classroom.
The changes to Google Search are aimed at helping students work through problems instead of “skipping straight to answers,” according to company officials, who say they also want to give education leaders more control over AI use in their classrooms.
This is a reversal from Google Classroom’s previous arrangement where artificial intelligence capabilities were automatically switched on unless school administrators turned them off.
However, the new changes mean students will not have access to Google Search unless access to the AI functions is also turned on.
The change coincides with a pilot program in certain U.S. schools later this month where education leaders will provide feedback on Guided Learning, said Chris Phillips, Google’s general manager of education, in a company blog post.
“If you’ve ever watched a student use AI tools to help with their schoolwork, you’ve probably wondered: Are they actually learning, or just finding a shortcut? Questions like this are important, and they guide our work when building products for learning,” he said.
“Our goal is simple: provide school leaders the control and confidence to use AI products in classrooms as they see fit.”
With the Guided Learning capabilities enhancements, Google Search will walk students through a process. If the user pastes a complex physics problem into the search bar or asks the function for help with writing a book report, the tool will provide them with prompts “to help them think critically and work through the concepts without going directly to the answer,” Phillips said.
Fairplay, a child advocacy organization that opposes ubiquitous digital learning in schools, criticized Google’s announcement, saying the tech company is trying to strong-arm schools into using its AI products by turning off the search function in schools that reject Google AI.
“Because AI isn’t safe for kids and undermines education and critical thinking, schools should turn off Google’s AI tools the minute that option becomes available,” Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said in a Nov. 3 X social media post.
“And rather than fret about losing access to Google Search, schools should use this opportunity to help students find more privacy-protective alternatives for search, as well as ways to do more substantive research beyond search and click.”
The push to scale back AI in schools has been gaining momentum.
In September, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on classroom use of generative artificial intelligence tools for prekindergarten through eighth grade, and all public high school students in New York City Public Schools will be required to complete AI awareness refresher courses twice a year.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the board of education ad hoc committee for generative AI reported that a district-wide K–12 moratorium on generative AI also took effect in September, replacing the former policy under which students age 13 and older were allowed to access those tools at school if they first completed a digital citizenship course.
In May, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called for a ban on digital learning environments for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade and said AI chatbots should not be available to any students younger than 16.
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