On Tuesday, the internet and politicians responded in outrage to a New York Times report saying that Google would effectively ban students from accessing Search if their schools banned AI entirely under a new initiative.

“Search and AI are deeply integrated,” Google’s vice president for education Chris Phillips told the New York Times, reportedly adding that if a school banned access to its AI services, students “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available.”

The report immediately drew ire. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who recently announced a ban on student-facing generative AI through eighth grade, said that Google was “trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools.”

“No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children,” Mamdani wrote in an X post. “Our public schools exist to serve students, not to grow the profit margins of Big Tech.”

Now, Google is claiming that it was all a misunderstanding, while stopping short of directly addressing the central concern raised by the New York Times report: that schools can’t offer students access to Search without also giving them access to AI features.

“We want to clarify what we announced today about our education services,” Google said in a post on X. “Today’s announcements give schools more choice, not less.”

Under the new initiative , expected to take effect early next year, Google’s Gemini, Gemini Notebook, and Search will be off by default for K-12 student accounts.

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