Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent a letter to Google on Monday urging the tech giant to allow schools to disable artificial intelligence features within its search engine. The request follows a New York Times article last week 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 to restore access.
However, Google stated that AI features like AI Overview and AI Mode are too deeply integrated into search for schools to disable while maintaining search functionality. The company announced a new student AI chat feature, Guided Learning, designed to assist with schoolwork while reducing AI cheating. The tech industry faces heightened public concern that chatbots can hinder student learning and pose risks to children's mental health.
Markey criticized Google for using its dominant position in education technology to push AI chatbots onto children and teenagers regardless of school safety beliefs, calling it an ultimatum to force schools to enable generative AI. Google maintained its changes would more easily allow schools to control student access to AI. Markey also asked Google whether it is technically feasible to provide K-12 students with search results that do not include AI-generated responses, and requested any research on the safety and learning effects of AI features on search by the end of the month.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing