Last week Google changed the rules for schools on Google Workspace for Education: a school that fully blocks the company's AI tools will find its students have lost Google Search too. Google's explanation is that search and AI are now too deeply intertwined to separate. That sounds technical. In practice it is a clear business decision.
Start with the facts: Google has no real technical problem offering search without AI summaries. It did so for decades, and its search still has a 'web' filter showing only links. When it chooses not to give schools a simple way to turn off AI and keep search, it is not yielding to a technical limit. It is using its control of search to push adoption of its new product.
And that product is contested. In July Common Sense Media rated the AI features in Google Search an 'unacceptable risk' for students, partly because in its tests AI Mode completed homework 180 out of 180 times and did not reliably detect children in crisis. Google rejected the findings. But instead of addressing the criticism, it is passing the decision to schools with a condition that makes it almost impossible.
It is a familiar pattern for dominant tech companies: tie a new product to one people cannot do without. An education system dependent on Google search, Google email and Google documents cannot really say no. And when the customer cannot say no, 'choice' is a euphemism for pressure. Unsurprisingly, senators from both US parties are already questioning Google about its push for AI in schools.
Why should it worry Israel? Because many schools here also work with Google tools, and students use its search every day. The decision whether and how to bring AI into the classroom should be made by educators, parents and the Education Ministry on pedagogical grounds, not imposed through a technology vendor's settings. Israel's education system should ask now what its alternatives are, before the decision is made for it.
