Google said on Tuesday, November 3 that Google Search, Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Classroom will be switched off by default for K-12 student accounts, staying off until a school administrator explicitly turns each one on. The company said it was acting because schools, teachers, researchers and policymakers had asked for control, and published a 29-page report on AI in education the same day. Guided Learning, already available in Google Classroom from November 3, will also reach Search for student accounts through a pilot in selected US schools later in November. Google gave no date beyond 'the coming months'; The New York Times reported early next year.

The catch is in the bundle. Each product can be enabled separately, but the Search a school switches on still includes AI Mode and AI Overviews, which Google describes as part of the product — there is no way to give students classic Search and leave the AI layer off. 'Search and A.I. are deeply integrated,' Chris Phillips, Google's vice president for education, told the Times. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Google of using monopoly power to force AI into public schools, and a Community Note on Google's own response post made the same point: schools cannot enable basic Search without the AI features.

The stakes are the habits of the education market: Gemini Notebook — the renamed NotebookLM — counts more than 30 million users, and defaults set in school accounts shape what a generation reaches for first. Districts that keep AI off entirely will now lose student access to Google Search altogether, and students will see a message saying it is not available.

Update, November 4: Google spent Tuesday playing defence. In a blog post titled 'Designing responsible AI for learning' and a post on X, the company said the policy was meant to give schools more choice, repeating that Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search are off by default and that 'schools are in control,' able to turn each on as they see fit. It also said Search for schools is being updated for learning: AI Mode and AI Overviews will offer step-by-step Guided Learning through problems so students do not simply get quick answers to schoolwork. The response did not address the central criticism — that a school cannot switch Search back on without the AI layer that comes bundled with it.