Reported by TechCrunch AI
Google was met with swift backlash on Tuesday after it announced that schools using Google’s K-12 software will not be able to use Search unless they opt in to using AI tools.
Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google, told The New York Times that “Search and AI are deeply integrated,” so if a student’s school doesn’t opt in to using AI tools like Gemini, then students “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available.”
Even as Google made this announcement on a busy Election Day, several left-leaning politicians took time to speak up about their concerns.
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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) accused Google in an X post of “extortion,” writing that “Google is threatening schools: if you stop your students from using AI, we will cut off your access to Google Search.” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on X that Google is “more concerned with forcing Gemini into schools than enabling students to succeed.”
President Trump claimed that AI oligarchs could regulate themselves because they “love our country.” Now, Google is threatening schools: if you stop your students from using AI, we will cut off your access to Google Search. That’s not love. That’s extortion. PAUSE AI NOW.
Lina Khan, the former FTC chair and staunch advocate against monopolies, also condemned Google’s decision as anti-competitive.
“This highlights the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service,” she wrote . “Multiple courts have found Google liable for violating antitrust laws, and this latest move shows it remains unchastened.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Google of being a monopoly, commenting , “No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children.”
Google is using its search monopoly to coerce schools into adopting AI. This highlights the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service. Multiple courts have found Google liable for violating antitrust laws, and this latest move shows it remains… https://t.co/eajJN9yfQF
While Search is a necessary tool for information gathering, educators worry that its built-in AI overviews could…