Schools that want Google Search for students will have to accept its AI too

Google has announced that its AI products will soon be switched off by default for K-12 student accounts. Namely, Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Google Search will be “entirely off” until school administrators explicitly turn them on.

In case you missed it, Google Search is on that list. The company says Search and AI are “deeply integrated”, so a school that wants no AI at all for its students also has to give up Search for them. Students in such schools will see a message saying Search isn’t available.

After a wave of criticism, Google clarified that schools can turn each of these services on individually. So Search can be enabled while the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook stay off. But there’s no version of Search without AI Overviews and AI Mode on offer. Instead, Google says these will be tweaked to give “step-by-step guided learning through problems” so students don’t get quick answers to their schoolwork.

This builds on Guided Learning, the tutoring mode in Gemini that coaches students with open-ended questions instead of handing them the final answer. It’s coming to Search for student accounts as a pilot in select US schools later this month. If a student pastes in a physics problem or asks for help with a book report, Search will walk them through it step by step. Guided Learning is also available globally in Google Classroom starting today, as an activity teachers can assign.

Google says it will share more details with schools in the coming months, before the new controls roll out early next year. Until now, Gemini was switched on automatically for schools using Google Classroom, which drew criticism from parent advocacy groups.

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