Chicago Public Schools is blocking generative AI tools like Google Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude on student accounts, even as Google has threatened to block search access for schools that disable its artificial intelligence.
In a statement released Monday, a CPS spokesperson said the decision to block the AI apps was made for “student privacy and safety.” Apps like Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude will be blocked on CPS-issued devices and on the CPS network for all students.
” CPS-issued devices, and on the CPS network for students. CPS has blocked unapproved, third-party AI products from the District network to help protect confidential student information and comply with federal and state privacy laws, including FERPA, COPPA and SOPPA,” the statement said in part. “CPS has no plan to add generative AI tools to CPS students’ devices.”
Last week Google announced it would block search access for schools that ban AI use. The Alphabet-owned search giant said after surveying school administrators and teachers, it was turning off all artificial intelligence in its education apps for K-12 students unless school administrators expressly and proactively enable it.
That includes access to Google’s search engine, the most popular and widely used search engine in the world. That’s because Google’s search engine now includes an AI overview at the top of search results, before the search engine’s links.
Schools that ban AI “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available,” Google Vice President Chris Phillips told The New York Times.
CPS is one of hundreds of school districts across the U.S. that uses Google Classroom and Google Chromebooks in its schools for students. The district said it has not yet determined its response to the Google search engine restriction.
The backlash to Google’s announcement was immediate. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Google, in a post on social media, of “trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools.”
Democratic Senator Ed Markey sent a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai demanding Google’s corporate parent reverse the policy.
An Alphabet spokesperson told CBS News that Google’s AI features are now so tightly integrated into search that it cannot offer its search engine without AI enabled.
Markey said Google’s decision to block search access for students who opt out of AI “places schools in an impossible position,” forcing them to choose between giving students access to a potentially dangerous technology and depriving them of “a critical educational research tool.”
Google said schools will be able to individually turn each Google tool on or off — including Gemini, Gemini Notebook and search, with each being off by default until administrators turn it on. But because search is integrated with AI, schools that opt out of AI altogether would also lose access to Google search.
Google is by far the dominant provider of education technology for U.S. schools. Worldwide, the company says 150 million students and teachers use its Google Classroom platform, and many students use school-provided Chromebook computers.
