Ripple effect: Not long after Google announced its definitely-not-petulant response to schools banning its AI services by threatening to remove its search engine completely, Chicago Public Schools has said it will simply use a different search solution. Google's actions have also led to protests against the company, with demonstrators chanting the catchy slogan, "Hey Google, nice try. We don't want your Gemini."
At the start of November, Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager for education, said K-12 schools will soon have to accept the company's AI services to retain student access to its search engine. The reason, he claimed, was that Search and AI are now deeply integrated services. Instead of the usual results, students will see a message from their school stating that the services are not available.
A lot of people didn't take this well, claiming Google was essentially blackmailing schools into using a service they didn't want. Chalkbeat Chicago reports that it led to protests in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Chicago, where the city's school district recently blocked student access to generative AI tools such as Gemini.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has yet to respond to Google's announcement, but a CPS spokesperson said in a statement that the district was "actively exploring all options to independently suppress" the AI Overviews that appears at the top of Google searches. The spokesperson added that if CPS cannot provide students access to Google's search engine without its AI feature, the district will "look to other search solutions."
It's not just CPS that's unhappy about Google's behavior. About 30 protesters, including parents, educators, and students, demonstrated outside Google's office in Chicago's West Loop.
"We are owed lessons and feedback from the people CPS hired, people who are passionate and dedicated to making learning fun," said Reese Mackey, a junior at Kenwood Academy High School. "Not by a bot whose only job is to be a yes man and compile random sources from the internet for a nonsensical answer."
A Google spokesperson said the company was working to improve Search for classroom use, including testing its "Guided Learning" feature, which uses AI to guide students through problems one step at a time instead of simply giving them answers.
Chicago is far from alone in pushing back. In October, Frederick County's school board voted 6 – 1 to restrict student AI use from pre-K through 12th grade, just weeks after allowing older students to try Gemini with teacher permission. Board members raised concerns about the lack of warning to parents and teachers' inability to disable the tool on student devices. Exceptions remain for lessons about AI and accommodations for students with disabilities.
New York City also introduced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI from preschool through eighth grade for the 2026 – 2027 school year. High school use is limited to approved tools in supervised pilot or career-readiness programs, while Los Angeles has temporarily blocked generative AI tools on student devices across all grades.
Google faces an uphill battle to convince schools that using AI is the way forward for students, but threatening to remove search from those who say no is hardly going to help convince them otherwise.
Chicago schools tell Google they'd rather lose Search than be forced to accept AI
