Google is grappling with the nation’s largest public school system as the debate over AI’s place in classrooms pits parent groups against the tech giant.
Earlier this week, Google said schools that ban artificial intelligence would lose access to Google Search, prompting cries of blackmail and a swift rebuke from Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Google is trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools,” Mamdani wrote on
In September, Mamdani announced a one-year ban on most AI programs in the city’s schools and stricter limits on screens, especially for younger students. The moratorium was a major victory for city parents who oppose the use of artificial intelligence in public school classrooms.
But Google’s threat to end search in classrooms highlighted how deeply tech products are embedded in the educational fabric.
Google products are omnipresent in schools. Since the pandemic, many students have received individual Chromebooks for schoolwork and remote learning. City officials said the school system has 1.3 million Chromebooks, with about 500,000 assigned to students and another 800,000 in schools. Teachers post assignments to Google Classroom and students, like many adults, rely heavily on Google Docs and search.
“It would be incredibly difficult for us to completely decouple our school system from Google, and that’s what they’re banking on,” said Kelly Clancy, a member of the coalition calling for a total ban on AI in the city’s public schools. She said her three children had to use Google Classroom for remote learning and homework.
“But I think what they’re not counting on is the fact that parents across the country have rallied against this,” Clancy said. “And this is the perfect time for us to figure out how to distance ourselves from Google so that companies are not able to blackmail us into creating a captive audience of students.”
Google insisted that it was impossible to separate the company’s search function from AI.
Chris Phillips, vice president of education at Google, told the New York Times that “search and AI are deeply integrated,” so turning off AI will also mean turning off the search engine. The company said the new policy would take effect early next year. He did not respond to Gothamist’s requests for comment.
But over the past year, an influential movement of parents, educators and lawmakers has sought to curb the rise of artificial intelligence in schools. They argue that AI summaries and robots enable cheating, short-circuiting learning, and seducing children into inappropriate and even dangerous relationships. This week, the parents of a 13-year-old girl in North Carolina sued Google, alleging she planned to end her life after interacting with its AI mode.
Education officials said they were still trying to understand how Google’s new policy would affect search in schools.
Officials are “reaching out to Google to further discuss this update,” public schools spokeswoman Nicole Brownstein said.
She said the city has disabled the Gemini chatbot and AI mode on Google Chromebooks provided to students, and has asked Google to disable the AI preview that continues to appear in search results.
“We will keep students and school communities informed while continuing to place student safety and well-being above all other interests,” she said.
Following the Times report, Google released additional information about its plans for X.
He said the announcements gave schools “more choice, not less” and that Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Google Search would be turned off by default and schools would be responsible for which service was turned on, if any.
The company stressed that the changes were made in response to feedback from primary and secondary schools. Google said it was also changing the way AI would work in search “to make it better for learning.” The company said AI Mode and AI Previews would offer step-by-step guidance for solving problems “rather than just “quick answers to school assignments.”
Assemblyman Alex Bores noted that Google has made “significant investments” in its education offerings over the years, aggressively and successfully marketing its suite of products to schools.
“It’s a product choice that Google is making, and it’s a choice that maximizes profits,” said Bores, who worked at Palantir and recently co-founded Who Decides, an advocacy group for AI safety and regulation.
“Competitors like Duck Duck Go let people turn AI search on or off. And Google could do the same thing. They could also do the same thing only when it comes to kids if they wanted to. But they’re making an intentional choice not to do that, and I think that’s disappointing,” he said.
Anti-AI parents and educators said Google’s threat should encourage the city to cut ties with the company and invest in other search engines. Naveed Hasan, a member of the Education Policy Panel, which votes on education contracts, said the city should consider writing limits into contracts to prevent tech companies from unilaterally modifying software the school system has already purchased without authorization.
“We should review how we view technology contracts when companies change their features mid-contract,” he said.
Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham Law School, said the company’s decision could also face legal challenges. “What Google is doing is illegal under antitrust law and I hope there will be investigations soon by the attorney general’s office and others,” she said. “I just don’t find it credible that Google can’t offer search without AI insights.”
Clancy saw an opportunity for the school system to rethink how it teaches students to do their work.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us to figure out (how) to teach kids the fundamentals of research,” she said.
Maybe instead of spending so much on Google, Clancy added, the city could invest in libraries and school books.
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