google It defended itself on Tuesday after political backlash over new policies surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in schools.
In a blog post titled “Designing Responsible AI for Learning,” Google said it will bring AI to its Classroom service with a product called Guided Learning. The New York Times published an article saying that the company will stop searching for schools that reject AI completely.
Prominent left-wing politicians, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, expressed outrage on social media in response to the Times article.
“Google is using its monopoly power to force AI into public schools,” Mamdani wrote in X. “Google is threatening schools,” Sanders said, calling the policy “extortion.”
Google responded later that day. The company said in a post on X that the new policy aims to give schools more choice in how students interact with AI. Google said its Gemini chatbot, Gemini Notebook and search are turned off by default and “schools are in control” and can turn them on if they wish.
“We’re also updating school search to make learning even better,” Google wrote. “Specifically, AI Mode and AI Overview provide guided learning step-by-step through problems so that students don’t have immediate answers to school assignments.”
The company’s post does not explicitly respond to claims that access to search requires the use of AI. But Google’s vice president of education, Chris Phillips, told the Times that “search and AI are deeply integrated.”
A Google spokesperson referred to X’s post when asked for comment by CNBC.
Google has come under fire in recent years for a wide range of its practices, including losing antitrust lawsuits over its search and advertising businesses. Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan aggressively went after Google and other tech giants. Meta and Amazon.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Khan said Google’s new learning AI policy highlights “the dangers of allowing unregulated monopolies to control critical services.”
It’s the latest controversy surrounding the impact of technology on children and the role big internet companies play in distributing information.
In August, Meta Inc. reached a landmark $16.7 billion settlement in a child safety case after several state attorneys general accused the company of misrepresenting the extent of children’s mental health harm caused by apps like Facebook and Instagram.
That same month, OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens after state attorneys general began investigating the company’s safety practices and Florida Attorney General James Usmeyer (R) filed a lawsuit in June.
The nonprofit Common Sense Media recently gave Google’s AI Overview an “unacceptable risk” rating. Last month, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) launched an investigation into Google’s use of AI in the classroom.
Google introduced AI Overview as a search feature in May 2024.
— CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this report.
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