Google faces mounting backlash for controversial AI school policy

Google puts schools in an “impossible position” by blocking students from using its search platform unless AI tools are also enabled, Senator said.

Google faces mounting public pressure to change a new policy that would limit U.S. students' access to the internet giant's widely used search platform unless schools also offer its artificial intelligence-based education tools. In a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday, Sen. Edward Markey demanded that Google's corporate parent reverse the policy, which blocks search for K-12 student accounts that don't also provide access to apps such as Google Classroom.Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Google shouldn't use its dominance in the education technology market to effectively force AI on students by restricting their access to critical research tools like Google Search. Roughly 150 million students and teachers use Classroom.

"At a time when schools, parents and policymakers are working hard to implement safeguards on AI chatbots for our children, Google is recklessly forcing AI on schools and treating kids like collateral damage," Markey said in the letter. "Schools deserve the right to block student access to AI chatbots without also forfeiting access to an important educational tool."Google maintains that its policy change gives schools more control over how they allow AI into schools. An Alphabet spokesperson also told CBS News that Google's AI features are now so tightly integrated into search that it cannot offer the latter without also enabling the AI services. "We believe schools should have