But that decades-long relationship between the search giant and education turned into the subject of a furor this week when Google announced that starting in January it plans to block K-12 students from using its search engine unless districts opt into the company’s AI-generated version of it.
“If a school is not comfortable with that and simply wants AI off, then they have the choice to not have Search on at all,” Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president and general manager of education, said on Monday during a virtual briefing. ...
Google’s decision could complicate such efforts, particularly because schools rely on the company’s digital workspace for daily lessons and its search engine for research and assignments. ...
See the full story here: https://timesofsandiego.com/education/2026/11/08/googles-new-ai-ultimatum-sparks-concern-over-tech-giants-power-in-california-schools/