Google turned off search for schools that ban AI. Politicians screamed. Google responded. The fix is to turn search back on with AI Overviews.
That is the fix.
Bernie Sanders called it extortion. Zohran Mamdani said Google was using its monopoly power to force AI into public schools. Richard Blumenthal said Google cared more about Gemini than student success. All three were correct, and Google answered anyway with a post on X.
The post said "schools are in control." Control over what, exactly? Google controls the switch. Google controls the default. Google controls what the switch is wired to.
Chris Phillips, Google's vice president for education, told the New York Times that search and AI are deeply integrated. Fair enough. So is a hostage and a basement.
Google's big concession is that schools can now enable Search without Gemini. But per NBC News, schools still can't get Search without certain AI features like summaries. You can have the sandwich without the side salad. The salad is inside the sandwich.
Then came the sweetener. AI Mode and AI Overviews will now offer step-by-step guided learning, so students don't get quick answers to schoolwork. Search, the product that existed to give quick answers, will now withhold them. Progress.
The sales pitch also lands oddly given that Common Sense Media recently gave Google's AI Overviews an "unacceptable risk" rating. Google read that review and apparently saw a mandatory curriculum.
Alphabet shareholders will tell you this is bullish. Forced adoption is still adoption. Somewhere a retail trader is drawing a cup and handle on a chart of nine-year-olds being denied Wikipedia.
Consider the school administrator. He banned AI to protect children from a chatbot. He now explains to parents why the children can't look up the Louisiana Purchase. Then he clicks a button, and the chatbot arrives anyway. He is a man who locked the front door and was handed a key to the window by the burglar.
Google says the move gives schools more choice, not less. It's the same choice a toll booth gives you.
Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash
Leave a Comment