Google says there’s no way to use Search without using artificial intelligence - The Guardian

By Google News AI · 2026-11-03T21:31:00+01:00

In announcement geared to schools, tech giant shows how entwined AI is with the world’s most popular website

Google just acknowledged that you can’t use Google Search without using artificial intelligence.

The search giant announced a slate of new AI products for classrooms and schools on Tuesday as well as more ways for teachers and schools to limit or restrict use of those AI tools. The company said the schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom. There’s one catch, though: if a school or teacher blocks the use of Google’s AI features, students won’t be able to use Google Search.

“After listening to schools, teachers, leading researchers, and policymakers, we are now updating our approach to controls for Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Google Search,” company executives wrote in a blogpost. “Access to these products will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on.”

In a comment to the New York Times, Chris Phillips, Google’s vice-president for education, said that there is no Google Search without AI.

“Search and AI are deeply integrated,” said Phillips. A school-wide ban on AI would mean that students “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available”, he told the Times. The Guardian also reached out to Google but did not hear back by publication.

To some, the move reads like a penalty for not implementing Google’s AI features.

New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who recently imposed a one-year moratorium on generative AI tools in city schools through the eighth grade, said Google was exploiting its near-total control of online search.

“Google is trying to use…

Originally published by Google News AI