By Whizy Kim
Publication Date: 2026-10-02 18:05:00
TL;DR: A new Wall Street Journal report, based on interviews with more than 60 teachers, school officials, clinicians, parents, and kids, shows how large Google looms in American schools—and how easy it is for students to access the tech giant’s AI tools.
What happened: Some school districts are trying to kick AI out of the classroom, including in New York City and Los Angeles, home to the two largest public school systems in the US.
But there’s a problem with most of these bans: Kids can still use Google Search, where an AI summary and AI Mode chatbot now live at the top of many results’ pages—with Google currently not allowing schools to turn them off. (LA, for its part, says it had to build its own tool to block the Search chatbot.)
As concerns rise over AI use in schools, some parents and educators are looking right at Google, whose products have been fixtures in US classrooms for well over a decade. By the company’s own count, Google’s education software serves over…
