Google faces growing public pressure to change a new policy that limit access to American students to the internet giant’s widely used search platform, unless schools also offer its artificial intelligence-based educational tools.
In a letter Monday to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Sen. Edward Markey asked Google’s parent company to reverse the policy, which blocks searches for K-12 student accounts that don’t also provide access to apps like Google Classroom.
Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Google should not use its dominance in the education technology market to effectively impose AI on students by restricting their access to critical research tools like Google Search. Around 150 million students and teachers use Classroom.
“At a time when schools, parents and policymakers are working hard to implement safeguards on AI chatbots for our children, Google is recklessly imposing AI in schools and treating children as collateral damage,” Markey said in the letter. “Schools deserve the right to block student access to AI chatbots without giving up access to an important educational tool.”
Google maintains its policy change gives schools more control over how they allow AI into schools. An Alphabet spokesperson also told CBS News that Google’s AI capabilities are now so closely integrated with search that it can’t offer the latter without also enabling AI services.
“We believe schools should have control of AI in their classrooms and provide administrators with controls to help manage their approach,” Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president and general manager of education, wrote in a blog post announcing the policy change last week.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Markey’s letter.
Markey said Google’s decision to block research access for students who opt out of AI “puts schools in an impossible position,” forcing them to choose between giving students access to potentially dangerous technology and depriving them of “a critical educational research tool.”
“While Google has the right to create and offer new educational tools, it should not use its dominant market position to force schools to adopt them,” he added.
Markey asks Alphabet whether Google will commit to allowing schools to disable AI features and chatbots in K-12 student accounts while still allowing students to access Google Search. It also asked Google to disclose any research conducted on the impact of its AI tools on students’ mental health.
Markey asked Google to disclose any research or testing it conducted on the safety of its AI features and their impact on the mental health of K-12 students.
Google’s policy has drawn criticism from other critics. In a statement posted on social media, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused the tech giant of “trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools.”
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