The New York Times Google report<\/a>.<\/p>\nNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani didn\u2019t hesitate to comment on social media, \u201cNo corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children. Our public schools exist to serve students, not to grow the profit margin of Big Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n
By lunch time in New York on Tuesday, Google released a statement to \u201cclarify\u201d its strategy revealed to The Times the day before that had paired Gemini\u2019s AI with the ubiquitous Google Search, saying it was all a misunderstanding \u2013 and announced some changes from the initial \u201cAI or else\u201d approach.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s hurried post on X stopped short of directly addressing the fact that it told The Times that schools would not be able to offer students access to Google Search without also giving them access to Gemini AI features.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday afternoon, the tech giant said in a statement on X: \u201cWe want to clarify what we announced today about our education services,\u201d Google said in the Nov. 3 statement.<\/p>\n
Google also said on Tuesday that it had heard the concerns and would be updating Google Search for schools to allay the concerns. The company plans to begin piloting the changes in select U.S. schools later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are updating Search for schools to make it better for learning,\u201d the Google post added. \u201cSpecifically, AI will offer step-by-step guided learning through problems, so that students don\u2019t get quick answers to schoolwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s announcements give schools more choice, not less. Here\u2019s what we announced: \u2018Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search will be OFF by default. This is based on K-12 schools asking for more control over student use of AI services. Schools are in control: They can choose to turn ON one, two, or all of these services individually.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know there\u2019s concern about students using AI to shortcut schoolwork, and schools have told us they want control,\u201d Google continued on X. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why we are making these changes today to address the feedback we\u2019ve heard from educators in recent months. And we\u2019ll continue to engage deeply with educators to ensure we are giving schools more choice, more controls, and improved Search for learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
School districts across the country, from New York to California, have paused or banned use of AI in classrooms as they struggle with issues of plagiarism and distraction that can interfere with learning. Aside from offering the world\u2019s most popular search engine with Chrome, Google\u2019s Chromebooks also are the most widely used education device in the U.S. schools.<\/p>\n
In The Times interview,, Google executives had said that for districts that do allow A.I., there would be just two options for search inside school-issued accounts, beginning in early 2027. The options appeared to have been widened in response to backlash to the comments in The Times.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how educators will handle AI, and whether they are given genuine options from Google that both protect and enhance the educational experience of millions of students.<\/p>\n
Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google was in full damage control this week, attempting to backtrack on a plan to force all Google…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2007,22065,21829,14624,64478,88,90,89,11931],"class_list":["post-522470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-ai","tag-alphabet","tag-gemini","tag-google","tag-google-search","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}