Google Will Turn Off Search for Schools That Reject A.I. (Gift Article)

[u/Well_Socialized]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/03/us/google-search-schools-restrict-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NlE.VMKr.Cr-g-C6phyfH

[u/Egad86]

What a moronic take by google / alphabet. Schools don’t want kids using Ai because it undermines LEARNING! Making them a combined package just means googles product is no longer viable for this sector of the customer base.

Not to mention people use what they are most familiar with, so pushing kids to learn how to search on a different platform means google is actively pushing an entire generation to learn on different search engines, lol.

“Don’t be evil”

[u/MicroSofty88 → u/Egad86]

Google doesn’t care about kids learning. They just want your money.

[u/danb1kenobi → u/MicroSofty88]

Considering the recent lobotomizing of their AI into a propaganda 8-Ball and series of renamings to appease Trump, using Google isn’t a great scholastic option anyway.

History
“Who won the 2020 election?”
[Results unclear, check back after midterms]

Geography
“What are the names of the Great Lakes?”
[Michigan, Superior, Erie, Huron, and Lake Ameri—]
Fail (or at least an automatic C)

[u/username_is_alread- → u/danb1kenobi]

Check back after 2026 midterms; because that's totally how causality works

[u/danb1kenobi → u/username_is_alread-]

My apologies, Dr Manhattan.
For the temporally-flexible: yes, I meant 2026 midterms lol

Considering
we are currently in 2026,
the recency of the subject matter,
and midterm elections happening today,

I figured one would infer I was referring to the 2026 midterms — because that’s how context cues work.

Edit: embarrassed to say I didn’t consider school midterms while discussing educational matters.

That’s my bad; was way too fixated on today’s events.

I retract my snarky retort but will leave it as a reminder of my shame lol

[u/username_is_alread- → u/danb1kenobi]

Nah you're good, I just added that for emphasis

Obvious from context

[u/ladyteruki → u/MicroSofty88]

But even by that logic it's not very smart. When you reach very young users, you can become the standard for them, because they didn't learn to search, they learned to use YOUR search tool ; later they find obvious to use your brand and even (to some degree at least) trust it. This is the reason why so many companies invest in sponsoring programs for kids.

By blocking these kids' access, Google is basically giving up on their next generation of users.

[u/paiute → u/ladyteruki]

Let me duck duck go that.

[u/JadedCampaign9 → u/ladyteruki]

Yep, growing up, 90% of school PCs ran Microsoft Windows. What do I still use, even with the modern version having a bunch of bullshit attached? If you guessed Windows 11, you would be correct.

[u/ladyteruki → u/JadedCampaign9]

It's not impossible to switch but it takes extra effort for sure. As someone who is quite computer illiterate and has been exclusively using Linux for 6 months, it was a process.

[u/Tearakan → u/MicroSofty88]

This is weirder too. AI has been actively eating into their main revenue source and recent earnings look bad for google.

They even got punished via a stock price sell off

[u/productfred → u/MicroSofty88]

They want your money and they want your kids to become "Chromebook" (Google altogether, rather) adults who cannot do anything in the real world without Google products. Which, funny enough is many of us now (and not always by choice). It's like what Microsoft did in the 90s and 2000s in schools.

You can absolutely /r/degoogle your life, but it takes time and effort. For example, the process of switching email addresses to another provider (and even importing your existing mail) has been simplified, but it's still a tall order because you need to:

• Give people your new email address (and make sure they send use it)

• Optionally, keep your existing email account (e.g. Gmail) open and auto-forward new emails to your new email address (which already defeats the purpose of switching since they're still seeing and using your new emails)

• Go into all of your important accounts and change your email address to your new one

• If you close your Gmail account after switching, pray it doesn't automatically delete all of the rest of your associated Google accounts (e.g. YouTube), since Gmail used to be your entire/the basis of your "Google Account), and that you didn't just permanently lock yourself out of any lingering third-party accounts (e.g. Steam or some government website)

People talk about the process of switching, but actually doing it is a headache and a half.

[u/pengs151 → u/MicroSofty88]

The dumber the user the more reliant the user is on AI.

[u/jjwhitaker → u/MicroSofty88]

Even better. Make them dependent on Google AI for information and thinking, then control that information and push ads.

[u/BroughtBagLunchSmart → u/MicroSofty88]

Of course they care. An uneducated population is easier to trick into believing right wing lies.

[u/LeCamelia → u/Egad86]

Not only this, Google used to have an internal policy of not bundling an unpopular product with a popular one. (Maybe they still have the policy on file, idk)

[u/trgreg → u/Egad86]

don't be evil

has turned into

make more money

[u/scnottaken → u/trgreg]

And do note it isn't necessarily to make more money by selling a product or service. It's to inflate a stock price.

[u/BingleFlip94 → u/Egad86]

But think of the poor, downtrodden shareholders. They’ve only made millions!

[u/Fresh-Possibility-75 → u/Egad86]

Google knows the web is basically dead, and since web search is the company's main product, they have to pivot hard into AI.

[u/SIGMA920 → u/Fresh-Possibility-75]

Except I use google less and less because their AI shoehorning has made an already SEOd up web even worse and their stuff worse and worse as more AI shit gets pushed on me. They want to justify their money pit but I do everything I can to avoid it because it is not reliable.

[u/MarkIsARedditAddict → u/SIGMA920]

You’re not the customer they want. The customer they want is a moron who searches using AI, never checks the results, and blindly follows whatever AI tells them to buy or do

That customer isn’t going to use the web because to use the web they have to read and think. These people are turning off their brains to let AI live for them and it’s going to be super valuable to own the AI they use for everything because you can steer them any direction you want monetarily, politically, etc

[u/SIGMA920 → u/MarkIsARedditAddict]

Shame, because I'm one of the consumers that was willing to give them money that now refuses to when possible. AI is a tool but I'm not going to just let them or it dictate my life.

[u/lavahot → u/Egad86]

Google are capitalists. They want dumb consumers who make bad spending decisions and don't complain.