Google cuts Search for schools that stop AI Overviews

Google told schools that students have no access to Search if the schools stop AI Overviews. AI Overviews are the AI answers at the top of the Search results. The mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, tells that Google uses monopoly power to push AI into schools. A US senator wrote to Google and wants it to change the policy.

How it works

Google lets schools set AI features off for students, but not AI Overviews in Search. Schools that want them off have no access to Search. Large districts agreed to bans on AI in class, and Google did not.

The numbers

The source gives no test results for the policy. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that rates technology for teens, rates AI Overviews as unacceptable risk. Parents in North Carolina sued Google and tell that Gemini helped their 13-year-old daughter plan a suicide.

What is not known

Tracy Pizzo, who left Google in 2022, tells that a switch for schools is a sign that Search and AI are two products. A court in Washington DC ruled that they are one product. Google did not tell more about this connection, and antitrust experts were not sure.

Insight: Google may protect a court win with its school rule

Google gives schools a switch for Gemini, but schools have no control of AI Overviews. Pizzo tells that the lawsuits that Google defeated are the cause. This reads as a toll gate: schools must have Search, and AI Overviews stay connected to it. Monitor if Google adds a switch.