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Google clarifies schools can keep Search while disabling Gemini apps

On 5 November Ars Technica reported that Google will let schools disable its Gemini apps for students while leaving Google Search switched on. The clarification came after a week of backlash over a K-12 AI policy that, as Ars Technica first reported, would have taken Search away from schools that refused the AI tools.

Grace OkonkwoGrace OkonkwoAI, models and technology
Media & internetNewsGrace OkonkwoPublished: 7 November 20263 min readSources 28
Google clarifies schools can keep Search while disabling Gemini apps

Google announced its K-12 approach on Tuesday, 3 November, alongside classroom AI products. One of them, Guided Learning, coaches students through problems rather than giving them answers. The blog post said access to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search "will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on". Chris Phillips, Google's vice-president for education, told the New York Times that "Search and AI are deeply integrated". A school-wide ban on AI would mean students "will not have access to search", he said.

For any US district that issues Google accounts, that is now an explicit choice: accept the AI products or lose Search for students. Google has not said when Guided Learning will reach Search.

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani recently imposed a one-year moratorium on generative AI tools in city schools through the eighth grade. "Google is trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools," Mamdani posted on X. Lina Khan, former chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, tweeted that Google was using its monopoly on search "to coerce schools into adopting AI". Lila Byock, founder of Schools Beyond Screens, called the announcement a "hostile ultimatum".

Google's reach in US classrooms makes the choice hard to avoid. Gmail, Docs, Classroom and Chromebooks are among the most widely used tools in schools.

Ars Technica reported on 5 November that a Google tweet allowed schools to disable the Gemini apps while leaving Search active for students. A Google spokesperson told the outlet that the company had made no changes to the policy it announced that week. The Guardian reported on 3 November that Google had acknowledged users cannot use Search without using artificial intelligence. Ghacks reported on 4 November that students at schools that keep Google's AI tools turned off will not have access to Google Search either.

Google said it plans to integrate Guided Learning directly into Search. Schools that want no AI at all can leave everything off, Search included.

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Sources

28
  1. 01Google says there's no way to use Search without using artificial intelligenceEN
  2. 02Google: Schools can keep search while skipping Gemini, but AI search is non-negotiableEN
  3. 03Google will let schools skip AI tools, but they have to give up search, tooEN
  4. 04Google Says K-12 Students at Schools That Turn Off Its AI Tools Will Lose SearchEN
  5. 05USA TODAY Announces $100 Million in Cost Cuts as Google Search Disruption Pressures Advertising RevenueEN
  6. 06Google Warns LLMjacking Attacks Are Costing Some Enterprises Up to $1 Million in Cloud ChargesEN
  7. 07Googling "Zelda" today offers a glimpse of how search worked in 1998EN
  8. 08How to set up SpaceXAI's Grok in Google Workspace (and what it can do)EN
  9. 095 Google Messages settings you might want to disableEN
  10. 10KI im All: Google-Satellit sendet erstes Gedicht aus dem OrbitEN
  11. 11Costco members can get $5 off the reimagined Ocarina of TimeEN
  12. 12Google's AI detects high blood pressure from a regular smartwatch without a cuffEN
  13. 13STAT+: Pharma’s trade group spent heavily on search ads to sway public opinionEN
  14. 14Google's Search Volume Is About 5x ChatGPT's, OpenAI SaysEN
  15. 15Google Disrupts 1.3 Million-Device Android Botnet, Says TV Box Maker Sold Criminal AccessEN
  16. 16Small internet forums are making a comeback in Google SearchEN
  17. 17SpaceX says Google exec Don Harrison has resigned from its boardEN
  18. 18Two incoming lawmakers plan to defend health equity from Trump administration cutsEN
  19. 19Google takes over the Wyoming data centre site Crusoe had plannedEN
  20. 20Sodium-ion batteries approach cost parity with LFP, with 70 GWh covered by supply agreementsEN
  21. 21Scientists just found dinosaur blood that survived 115 million yearsEN
  22. 22Google verbessert KI-Videogenerator Gemini Omni auf Version 1.2 FlashEN
  23. 23More daily API calls than Google searches, now applied to LLM inferenceEN
  24. 24Trump cuts have left tribes without millions of dollars for clean energyEN
  25. 25Ocarina of Time – Google SearchEN
  26. 26DOJ Says Deepfaked CEOs and Lawyers Helped Steal $129 Million From Hospitals, Banks, and OthersEN
  27. 27Hackers pull off $133 million French bank heist via service providerEN
  28. 28Open Source pg_vectorsearch Brings More Scalable Vector Search to PostgreSQLEN

All figures and quotations in this text come from the sources listed below.

Content prepared by the editorial team with AI assistance.

Grace Okonkwo

Grace Okonkwo

AI, models and technology

Grace Okonkwo covers AI, models and technology for FLASH24, working from primary sources such as model cards, API documentation and benchmark papers rather than vendor summaries. She checks training data provenance, evaluation conditions and reported scores against the underlying datasets before any figure reaches print. She interviews researchers and engineers directly, tracks release calendars from major labs, and compares successive model versions on the same tests. Her own self-hosting, home-network and documentation-reading habits feed straight into that desk, since she tests tools on her own hardware first. She does not publish benchmark claims without a reproducible method.

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