Google says schools rejecting all AI will lose student Search

Google says it will switch its AI products off by default for K–12 student accounts beginning next year, reversing an earlier default-on approach. Administrators will be able to turn on Gemini, NotebookLM, Gemini in Classroom, and Search separately, but a school that wants to keep AI out entirely cannot give students Google Search through managed accounts. Google says features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode are now built into Search, and it is redesigning them to guide students through problems rather than simply supply answers. The choice is therefore not just whether to adopt a chatbot: for schools that rely on Google, keeping the familiar research tool means accepting AI within it.