Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? Here are some theories

Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by zerkten on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:38PM (#50486901)

Google are avoiding an à la carte offering here. They are saying you either get search which now includes AI, or you can disable the entire feature. The obvious thing that people want is the original search without AI included.

They are not giving reasons why they can't unbundle these options. It could be technical but seems more likely that they want to appear to comply and shift the focus. Search being disabled creates pressure on those operating the tool. The local narrative becomes that the admin is the one that is limiting use. Eventually people lose sight of the real reasons and Google are on the sidelines watching users fight it out with admins.

This is a classic product management approach to dealing with objections. Remember that the PMs are getting measured on usage. If no one uses their feature then they are in trouble, so they make it hard to disable their features. A wonderful incentive structure, right?

Lots of companies build toggles that bundle up features as a result. You may want to disable this one thing, but toggling that off disables all these other things you want. The admin has pressure from the business or users. The vendor comes in to support the business or users, and then the IT team is overruled. Alternatively, the bundle is packed with items of real value plus mitigations are released elsewhere in the product (think: eDiscovery/logging/compliance) that cause IT to enable the whole bundle.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by londons_explore on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:42PM (#50486975)

Google search has involved various forms of AI for a decade or more...

All those ranking algorithms that decide which link comes at the top? They use AI.

Sure - it doesn't look like a chatbot, but it's still AI under the covers and they couldn't in good conscious even give you search from 2008 and claim there was no AI involved.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by freecodeio on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:04PM (#50487320)

yes but choosing what link to click and then making up your mind from the contents was not AI

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by JDups on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:55PM (#50488063)

It's pretty clear that in this context, and in much of the current discussion about "AI", that "AI" is used to mean generative language models.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:55PM (#50488805)

BERT has been in Search for ages. Does that count?

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by watwut on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:57PM (#50488080)

I find these arguments absurd. You know full well what the schools mean. And that it is not the same thing as objection to 2008 technology. Which was not even called AI in 2008 but technically falls into onw of definitions.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by p_l on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:14PM (#50488334)

USA frequently operates on gotchas involving explicit text of the law, not spirit

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:58PM (#50488826)

The thing the schools want isn't well founded. Presumably they want their students not to be able to cheat, but a perfect search algorithm also allows them to cheat. As does, e.g. Wolfram Alpha-esque deterministic natural language systems.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by watwut on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:37PM (#50489308)

This is kindergarten gotcha logic. It is well founded and clear what they want.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:59PM (#50489569)

It really isn't. For example, nobody complained about the previous LLM-based summaries at the top of Google ("web answers"). What is it about AI overviews that is so much worse than them, other than culture war aversion to the word "AI"?

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by 4d4m on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:32PM (#50489237)

The amount of apologizing by people here on Google leadership's behalf not desiring to implement a feature flag for this population is confusing. This is classic bullying by Google, against kids.

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brookst on Friday November 13, 2026 @04:00PM (#50489581)

That's a lot of emotional appeal -- people who believe there's a reasonable explanation are "apologizing" (which is bizarre, because they obviously are not), Google is "bullying" and of course the old think of the children.

There has to be a better way to disagree with people?

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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by 4d4m on Friday November 13, 2026 @04:23PM (#50489921)

For a group that creates software we all know that feature-flags are trivial and already something Google has in place to serve its varying markets. It is unreasonable to expect that one of the most advanced companies will use this to serve the legal needs of one populace, but not use the already built feature to serve children in a more ethical way.

Sure, I could argue we should all think on how to better help a surveillance and advertising company get a better and earlier grip on children so that they are hooked on AI summaries instead of critically thinking and evaluating sources for themselves. But this is absolutely bullying, it's literally the tactic at use.

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