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Parents and Teachers Decry Google Pledge To Yank Search If Schools Block AI (theguardian.com) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the not-going-over-well dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Parents and teachers across the US are criticizing Google's announcement that schools choosing to block AI tools could also lose access to Google Search. Google announced last week a range of new AI tools for schools and classrooms, alongside options allowing teachers and administrators to restrict their use. The company said schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom, but that schools that choose to block Google's AI tools will also lose access to its search engine. [...] Parents and teachers across the country raised concerns to the Guardian about AI's potential to weaken students' critical-thinking skills and the growing influence of big tech in education. Some called on schools to consider alternative search engines, while others argued that students should be taught how to use AI responsibly rather than prevented from accessing it altogether.

Jen Atay, a 51-year-old teacher in Hawaii, lambasted Google's approach, saying: "When the software is free, you are the product, and it is inappropriate for Google to test or develop AI with minors. This should not be allowed at all." A 44-year-old father of two boys in Amissville, Virginia, said he worries that "AI will weaken people's ability to think critically. I use AI in my work, but it would not be effective if I did not have well over a decade of experience under my belt. Even the best models are often flat-out wrong in their responses." [...] Others questioned why schools should depend on Google at all. An 84-year-old retiree and mother in Maryland, said: "Google decided to follow the evil path to riches. When they started, they were great. Today they are simply evil money grubbers Schools should tell Google to go pound sand and simply have kids use DuckDuckGo or one of the other search engines There is nothing Google offers that is not available from some other source." [...]

Not everyone believes blocking AI is the answer. Some argued that schools should focus on teaching students how to use the technology responsibly. A 67-year-old emerging technology teacher in Texas said: "I do not blame Google. AI is not going away. I've been very frustrated this year trying to teach AI literacy with AI blocked. Schools need to teach how to properly use AI, not block it." A California resident echoed that view, arguing that schools could use Google's AI tools to teach students to question the information they receive. "Google Search has existed since the 90s and it's crazy of them to completely remove it instead of just removing Gemini. That being said, I would like to see schools actually permit the use of Gemini and use it as an opportunity to show students how its sources aren't always valid and you can't trust everything an AI tells you," they said.

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Parents and Teachers Decry Google Pledge To Yank Search If Schools Block AI

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  • How do you lose access to google? They perma ban your ip range?

    • Re:Lose access? (Score:5, Informative)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:20AM (#66422686) Homepage Journal

      You log into your Chromebook wirh your .edu account and it disables search for anyone in the org.

      Somebody pointed out here last time that if you append &utm=15 or something to the URL it goes back to the old Search.

      So it sounds like they're making a huge lie of omission.

      What's sad is they could use an LLM to teach Socratically with any search terms but they want so badly to suppress critical thinking and shove "alignment" down kids' throats that they are being belligerent.

      The dont-be-evil era company would be making the best teaching Search.

      It's a huge market void for someone with more time than I have right now.

      • https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
        classic search, just add "&udm=14"

        It's interesting how google went from "don't be evil" to "be as evil as possible and invent new ways to be evil"

      • but they want so badly to suppress critical thinking and shove "alignment" down kids' throats that they are being belligerent.

        This is the same company that sets your map to maximum zoom and leaves off street names so you'll never learn your way around.

      • You log into your Chromebook wirh your .edu account and it disables search for anyone in the org.

        If today's google search incorporates AI (*), and the school banned anything AI, isn't it the school's decision not google's? Perhaps schools need to be more selective about their AI ban?

        (*) Whether incorporating AI into general search is a good idea or not is a separate issue. It's not hard to believe that AI may outperform a "page rank" or whatever other criteria google is using. And search users seem to want some LLM functionality. Simple conversion for example, they want the converted number not a lo

        • What you're saying is what Google's lying PR bitch said.

          Bitch.

          • What you're saying is what Google's lying PR bitch said. Bitch.

            So you have no logical rebuttal. Is that become you cannot rebut the notion that today AI is a natural part of search?

            • You're a fucking idiot, that's my rebuttal. You know how nothing works, that's my rebuttal.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by drnb ( 2434720 )

                You're a fucking idiot, that's my rebuttal. You know how nothing works, that's my rebuttal.

                As I expected, you have no argument. Do you actually believe AI is not involved in search behind the scenes? And I am not talking about an LLM providing a user interface to the search service. I am referring to the search itself.

                • But that is not what Google is referring to. They are saying that schools cannot have the normal search without the AI hallucinations. Also, if AI is meaningfully involved with Google's traditional search results, then that only serves to explain why they are so shit now. But most importantly, this argument is the one that Google wants us to have, and it is bullshit.

                  The schools are not, in general, making a moral objection to AI. They are making a practical one, where they do not want the students exposed t

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by drnb ( 2434720 )

                    But that is not what Google is referring to. They are saying that schools cannot have the normal search without the AI hallucinations.

                    Because .... " A.I. features are now a standard part of Google's commercially available search engine ... "Search and A.I. are deeply integrated," said Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google"
                    https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

                    AI in them is fundamentally disingenuous, which is why I am 0% surprised to see you engaging in it.

                    You confuse disingenuous with facing reality.

                    • But that is not what Google is referring to. They are saying that schools cannot have the normal search without the AI hallucinations.

                      Because .... " A.I. features are now a standard part of Google's commercially available search engine ... "Search and A.I. are deeply integrated," said Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google"

                      That is exactly the lie I was speaking of which you are repeating. Thanks for finding that, liar!

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by drnb ( 2434720 )

                      But that is not what Google is referring to. They are saying that schools cannot have the normal search without the AI hallucinations.

                      Because .... " A.I. features are now a standard part of Google's commercially available search engine ... "Search and A.I. are deeply integrated," said Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google"

                      That is exactly the lie I was speaking of which you are repeating. Thanks for finding that, liar!

                      Its not a lie, its you denial of reality, your lack of understanding of today's technology.

        • You log into your Chromebook wirh your .edu account and it disables search for anyone in the org.

          If today's google search incorporates AI (*), and the school banned anything AI, isn't it the school's decision not google's? Perhaps schools need to be more selective about their AI ban?

          As someone who helps manage a school's Google Workspace domain, I can assure you it is not our decision to block Google Search. We, however, wish to prevent students from using AI to cheat on their assignments, which many many students attempt to do. It is not our school's decision to integrate AI tools into Search so deeply that blocking AI prevents Search from working, it is Google's. Please keep in mind Google Search has been working perfectly fine without AI integration for 30 years.

          Schools have an int

          • As someone who helps manage a school's Google Workspace domain, I can assure you it is not our decision to block Google Search.

            Of course not directly. But if granularity is absent, if all AI is banned, isn't that the indirect result of the school's decision? Are they expecting google to provide a legacy AI free search? For how many years have AI been a part of search behind the scenes?

            I'm sorry, but it seems schools did not do their homework regarding AI use in search and are now facing unintended consequences of the school's decisions.

            We, however, wish to prevent students from using AI to cheat on their assignments, which many many students attempt to do.

            That is absolutely the correct thing to do. Again, I'm just pointing out an unintended consequ

    • it's spin. "Google Pledge To Yank Search If Schools Block AI" is a horribly biased spin on the actual situation.

      The actual situation is that the school districts wants to block all student access to Google AI. Google search is now AI based. If you block Google AI, you have blocked Google search. If you leave student access to Google search, they can use the AI through the search interface.

      Google could certainly maintain the non-AI based search function in parallel, but they don't want to. So we have to

  • Nobody should be upset. Google is doing the world a favor by taking its trash search away. It has been beyond useless for at least three years.

    • What's the best search for error logs these days?

      DDG is almost useless.

      Google parses and looks up hex codes for you with a cursory explanation.

      Its conclusions are often wrong but good enough to point me at the right spec to figure out a bluetooth proxy problem recently.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        Honestly, Claude Code running as an agent on your machine under your own user account is both really powerful as a troubleshooting tool, but also very scary from both a privacy and risk point of view. If you use it in your local environment, then definitely put it on Manual permissions and approve every action, and realize that everything it reads goes up to the cloud. I only run Claude Code in a virtual machine with its own very limited local user account. I sometimes use it that way for troubleshooting

      • Kagi is way better for code and error messages in my experience. Sure it's a hybrid-index but much more quality than google.

      • Run a SeraXNG instance.

  • So stop using Gooble.

    DDG exists.

  • Dear... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HammerOn1024 ( 10137343 ) on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:16AM (#66422678)
    Village Idiot teachers and parents: USE another search engine! Pathetic! Of all the problems with our indoctrination systems... er, school systems... thus is the LEAST of the problems!

  • Stand up to Google (Score:5, Informative)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:17AM (#66422680) Homepage

    We need to stand up to google. They need to know they sell products to us, rather than force them on us.

    Just use other searches. Duck Duck Go is basically a google search that isn't a privacy invasion. Or use Bing, or a hundred others.
     

  • DuckDuckGo? (Score:3)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:20AM (#66422688)

    Google Search is not the only search engine, and it's really rather shit nowadays.

    Google is essentially threatening to restrict access to a service it's neither the only one nor the best at providing. If nothing else, it'll force the students and teachers to investigate better options - something they might not have done otherwise. Not a smart move on the part of Google...

  • Threatening to pull google search? Oh no!! Whatever will they do? / sarcasm

    I kicked google to the curb a long long time ago, and yes, life goes on. I honestly forget out them and I get amazed when I see someone use the search in real life.

  • Let the next generation of students be fully AI integrated. Let them graduate with skills that only make sense when continually partnered with such tools.

    That may seem odd, but hear me out.

    There will always be a set of baseline jobs that pay little enough that they won't benefit from automation. So as long as you need ditch diggers, fruit pickers, and people in between robots in Amazon warehouses, the surest way to ensure worker supply stability is to graduate people in large numbers with no value add of th

  • I have a very hard time keeping school Google out of my kids lives. Google classroom is insidious and insisting teachers keep my kids data, including pictures, out of Google clutches is an on-going ordeal.

    What used to be an email or a paper form sent home in the backpack is now done via Google classrooms. You can't decline Google ToS, because either teacher will accept it on kids behalf or make it impossible to participate in the classroom (schoolwork, homework assignments, etc.)

    So fuck Google and the h

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Morpeth ( 577066 )

      Well said (I'd mod up if I had points). Google has gotten itself entrenched at many schools, my own included, personally I hope all schools call their bluff and say 'ok fine'. Plus their 'search' has been so enshittified anyway, it's no loss to anyone.

      AI use at schools is problematic (at best), the less Google can force it upon young, developing minds, the better.

  • inacurate headline (Score:3)

    by ei4anb ( 625481 ) on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:38AM (#66422722)
    Google are not going to "yank" search if AI is blocked, they have rebuilt their search feature on top of their AI and no longer offer the legacy search. If you don't want AI then use a different search engine. The headline is rage-bait to generate clicks.

  • Be Evil when it makes more money!

  • This is classic bundling of two unrelated products. No matter what Google says search is not ai and even the dumbest judge on the planet knows that.

    We have let right wing extremists completely dismantle our court system so fuck only knows what's going to happen but any legitimate and sensible Court would simply declare this an antitrust law enforcement and tell Google to knock it the fuck off or they're going to split their company in the smaller sub companies.

    I don't think we're going to see that t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Sorry, but those aren't unrelated products. AI basically *IS* a search algorithm. It has other aspects, but that's what it is at its base. That's related to complexity being associated with how compressible something is.

      OTOH, legally you might have a point, I don't know.

  • FuckFuckGo. (Score:1, Troll)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 )

    ..schools choosing to block AI tools could also lose access to Google Search.

    Did you just threaten to force educators to actually teach our kids?

    Do I hear a quack? Don’t threaten us to DuckDuckGo elsewhere. We just might tell you to FuckFuckOff and see just how bad you, need us.

    Oh, and one more thing. You will NOT threaten pension investments and retirees with your corrupt “magnificent” standing in the market. Do it, and we just might take you up on that challenge too. Knock your greedy dick in the dirt where your arrogance should be.

  • When my kids were going through high school not too long ago, registration involved setting up a Google student account. The school board decided that it was better to run everything via Google than to have a small IT department or contracted support company build something on-prem.

    Other places go whole-hog for Microsoft, some dedicate themselves to Apple. It's all a giant mistake. Kids can learn specific tools as needed to be employable when they graduate, but there's no need to slave all your infrastru

    • The worst part of this is that that people in their late teens to late 20s have gotten so used to the "cloud" that (a) many don't realize that they're sharing documents they create off-device and (b) what the exact difference between on-device and cloud storage is, and how to stay on one side of the line when appropriate.

    • When my kids were going through high school not too long ago, registration involved setting up a Google student account. The school board decided that it was better to run everything via Google than to have a small IT department or contracted support company build something on-prem.

      Other places go whole-hog for Microsoft, some dedicate themselves to Apple. It's all a giant mistake. Kids can learn specific tools as needed to be employable when they graduate, but there's no need to slave all your infrastructure to corporate interests.

      I work in a school district in the tech department. On-prem for schools, especially smaller schools, requires more resources than most schools have. I've managed on-prem and Google. I fought against Google adoption, for these kinds of reasons (not AI specifically, but that we're a slave to Google's whims). But, at the end of the day, it simply was not realistic to continue hosting our own on-site email, LMS, file storage, etc. It was too much money, too much time, and, honestly, requires too much expertise

  • Google search is really google ads plus a pitiful number of real search results these days.

  • Seriously, google is about the worst offering today and has been for a few years. Them blocking it (however they want to do that) would be a good thing.

  • Schools and boards using products from companies that are pro-telemetry and pro-analytics, are willingly digitally molesting their students. Simply having a kid using Windows on a school computer is enough to violate that student. The difference between Epstein and teacher allowing Google, Microsoft, and so on, in the classroom, is really just mental spin and excuses.
  • I have altered the deal. Pray, I don't alter it further.

    Children are now beta testers of Google's next product.

    Humans have been having sex for over a million years, it isn't taught in schools. Money has existed for 10,000 years, fiscal responsibility isn't taught in schools. Neither is judging a spending spree, as "fiscally responsible" or not. Schools aren't adopting AI for the children but for the billionaires: So those children turn into employees or consumers. Half the people shoving AI at ch

  • Google search is garbage now. The results are crap and operators like the minus sign or putting a string in quotes no longer work the way they used to. Instead, it tries to interpret what you "probably" meant and operators are merely seen as hints instead of strict rules. All so they can make more money from ads and sponsored results.

  • The future of search and certain ly Google search is AI driven. It not clear what Google means by turn of AI. I suppose they could offer a AI mode for schools that works more like search did in 2024. The reality is the schools are free to use a different search engine. Engines that are still keyword driven will, fall behind in there ability to return useful results. AI is changing the internet and the ability to interact with it while avoid AI is going to be come increasing difficult. Parents and schools

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