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Google Turns AI Off for Students, and Search Goes With It

Google Turns AI Off for Students, and Search Goes With It

Big Tech

Google will keep Gemini and Search off for K-12 student accounts until schools opt in. Because Search has built-in AI, schools that want no AI must switch Search off entirely.

AP
Staff
November 9, 2026 · 2 min read

Google is switching off its AI tools for school students by default. The company said on November 3, 2026 that Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will be turned off for K-12 student accounts until a school administrator chooses to turn each one on. The catch: Google says it cannot fully remove AI from Search, so schools that want no AI will have to turn off Search entirely.

What exactly is changing?

Until now Google had switched Gemini on for students by default, which caught many school districts off guard. Under the new approach, nothing AI-powered reaches a student account unless the school opts in. Google says it will share the exact timing with schools "in the coming months"; some reports put the new defaults in early 2027.

Why does Search get switched off too?

Because AI is now built into Google Search itself, through features like AI Overviews, and Google offers no AI-free version. Google’s education chief Chris Phillips told Chalkbeat that schools wanting no AI must turn Search off. In practice that leaves schools with an awkward choice: allow AI in student Search, or lose the world’s most-used search engine on school accounts. Critics have called that holding Search hostage. Google frames it as giving schools control.

What is Guided Learning?

It is Google’s answer to the worry that AI does students’ homework for them. Guided Learning asks questions and walks through steps instead of handing over answers. It is now available worldwide in Google Classroom, where teachers can read students’ chats, and Google will test it inside Search at some US schools, for example prompting a student to work through a physics problem rather than showing the answer.

Why the change now?

Pressure from schools and parents. Large districts including New York and Los Angeles restrict student AI use, and in July Common Sense Media rated Google’s AI Search an "unacceptable risk" for students. New York City’s mayor has accused Google of using its market power to push AI into classrooms. Opt-in by default is the cautious setting most child-safety groups asked for. Tying it to Search is the part schools will push back on.

For parents, the practical step is to ask your child’s school which Google AI tools it plans to enable, and whether Guided Learning will be the default mode. It is part of a wider shift we have seen in how the same AI is switched on or off depending on who is using it.

Read The Next Web’s report.

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Up Next
Voters Rejected Data Centers 40 Times Out of 41. OpenAI Responded.

Voters Rejected Data Centers 40 Times Out of 41. OpenAI Responded.

Policy & Regulation

On November 3, voters favored limits on data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures. Two days later OpenAI pledged to pay full power costs and drop NDAs at campuses it owns, but not at partner sites.

AP
Staff
November 9, 2026 · 2 min read

Voters in towns and cities across the US sided against new data centers almost everywhere they were asked on November 3, 2026. Per Ballotpedia, 41 local data center measures were on the ballot, and the result favoured limits on data center development in 40 of them. Two days later, OpenAI published a "National Community Compact" promising to pay the full power costs of campuses it owns and to stop asking local officials to sign secrecy agreements.

What did voters decide?

Of the 41 contests, 27 approved new limits and 13 rejected measures that would have allowed more development. The margins were often lopsided:

  • Alhambra, California: banned data centers in the city, 83% to 17%.
  • Wells, Maine: a 180-day moratorium, 82% to 18%.
  • Edgewater, Florida: banned new data centers from being approved, built or expanded, 77% to 23%.
  • Emporia, Kansas: banned high-impact data centers, 60% to 40%.
  • Grove City, Ohio: requires a public vote on very large projects using 50+ acres, 20+ megawatts or 500,000+ gallons of water a day, 55% to 45%.
  • Wilmington, Ohio and Boulder City, Nevada: voters rejected rezonings that would have allowed data centers, by roughly 70% to 80%.

The one exception was Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected extra review for industrial projects including data centers, 76% to 24%. A proposed Ohio statewide amendment banning data centers over 25 megawatts did not make the ballot; its campaign is aiming for 2027.

What is OpenAI promising?

OpenAI announced its compact on November 5. For future "compute campuses" it owns and operates, it says it will:

  • Pay the full cost of its electricity and the grid upgrades needed to serve it, and post financial guarantees so residents do not pay if a project is cancelled.
  • Publish water and power use for each site, plus an annual public report and a local agreement for each campus.
  • Stop asking public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, except in narrow security and trade-secret cases.
  • Invest 80 million dollars in Effingham County, Georgia, and 40 million in Pike County, Ohio.

There is a big caveat. The compact covers only campuses OpenAI owns. Capacity built and owned by partners such as Oracle, which supplies much of OpenAI’s computing power, is not included. OpenAI also asked lawmakers to apply similar rules to the whole industry.

Why is this happening now?

Because the local backlash we tracked through the autumn, from Hermantown, Minnesota to Victoria, Australia and Loudoun County, turned into votes. Residents worry about higher power bills, water use, noise and deals done behind closed doors. AI stocks also had their worst day since April 2025 that week as investors weighed what tougher local rules mean for the build-out.

For the AI industry, the message is clear: communities now expect to be paid, informed and asked. Whether one company’s voluntary pledge is enough, when the biggest builders are its partners, is the open question.

See Ballotpedia’s full list of data center measures and Reuters’ report on OpenAI’s compact.

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