US Senator Ed Markey sent a letter to Google on Nov 9 telling the tech giant to allow schools to disable the artificial intelligence (AI) features within its search engine.
The letter cited a New York Times article reporting that Google planned to turn off student access to certain AI-related services – including its Gemini AI tool and search – giving schools the option of turning any back on.
But schools will not have the ability to turn off AI features in search if they want to keep using it to run queries, Google said. That’s because tools like AI Overview and AI Mode are too “deeply integrated” into search, the company said. AI Mode is a chatbot-like feature, while AI Overview generates search summaries. There will also be a new student AI chat feature, Guided Learning, meant to assist with schoolwork while tamping down on AI cheating.
The tech industry is facing heightened public concern that chatbots can hinder students’ learning and pose risks to children’s mental health. And Google’s announcement set off criticism from some politicians and nonprofit groups that the tech giant’s insistence on keeping AI features in search was undermining schools’ abilities to make learning and safety decisions for their students.
“Despite the increasing concern over AI chatbots’ risks to minors, Google is using its dominant position in the education technology sector to push AI chatbots onto children and teenagers, whether or not their schools believe the technology is safe,” Markey said in the letter.
“That is not a choice,” he added. “It is an ultimatum to effectively force schools to enable generative AI.”
Google said that the changes it was making would more easily allow schools to control student access to AI. The company said its new AI school feature, Guided Learning, would help students work through questions rather than provide answers.
Markey’s letter also cited a Times story from August reporting that Google had turned on AI features in Google Classroom, a schoolwork assignment app, for K-12 students in schools that had enabled its Gemini chatbot. Google now plans to turn those off.
In his letter, Markey asked Google whether it would change course and allow schools to disable student access to the AI features within search without losing access to the search engine. He also asked the company whether it was “technically feasible” for it to provide K-12 students, who are logged into their school Google accounts, with search results that did not include AI-generated responses or guidance.
Additionally, he requested that the company provide any research it had conducted on the safety and learning effects of the AI features on search by the end of this month. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
