Google turns off Gemini for K-12 student accounts until schools opt in

Google will switch off Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search for K-12 student accounts until a school administrator enables each one, the company said on Tuesday. Google will share details and timing with schools in the coming months.

What changes

The four tools will stay off by default for school students. Each requires its own administrator opt-in.

Google had earlier turned Gemini on for all students by default, which caught many districts off guard, according to the source, TNW, which cites Chalkbeat. The change comes as large US districts, including New York and Los Angeles, restrict how students use AI, Chalkbeat reported.

Guided Learning expands

Google is also widening Guided Learning, a mode that asks questions and explains step by step instead of handing over answers.

• Google Classroom: Guided Learning is now available worldwide. Teachers assign the work and can read their students' chats.
• Search: Google will test Guided Learning at some US schools later this month. A student who pastes in a physics problem will get prompts to work it out rather than the answer.

AI in Search cannot be fully removed

Schools that want no AI at all have a limited option. Google's education chief Chris Phillips told Chalkbeat: "If a school is not comfortable with that and simply wants AI off, then they have the choice to not have Search on at all."

In July, Common Sense Media called Google's AI Search an "unacceptable risk" to students. Google's Search approach for schools does not remove that concern, since AI stays part of Search for any school that keeps it on.

Background

In August, Google gave US college students a free year of its AI Pro plan. That offer is separate from the K-12 changes announced Tuesday. Google has not yet shared the timing of the new default settings with schools.

What this means

The default for K-12 student accounts moves from on to off. Districts now decide tool by tool, rather than having to opt out after the fact, which addresses the complaint that Gemini was enabled for all students without districts being ready.

Guided Learning is Google's answer to the concern about students receiving answers directly. Teacher visibility into student chats in Classroom gives educators a way to review how students use it. The Search test is limited to some US schools, so it is not yet a broad deployment.

Search is the exception to the opt-in model. By Phillips' own account, a school's only way to avoid AI there is to disable Search entirely. For districts that restrict student AI use, that is a harder trade-off than the other three tools, and it leaves the Common Sense Media criticism of AI Search unresolved.