Parents and teachers decry Google pledge to yank Search if schools block AI: 'This threat is nothing but extortion' Company says schools should control student AI use, but if they block its AI tools, they'll lose access to search engine Parents and teachers across the US are criticizing Google's announcement that schools choosing to block AI tools could also lose access to Google Search. Google announced last week a range of new AI tools for schools and classrooms, alongside options allowing teachers and administrators to restrict their use. The company said schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom, but that schools that choose to block Google's AI tools will also lose access to its search engine. "We believe schools should have control over AI in their classrooms and in providing administrators with controls to help them manage their approach," said Chris Phillips, vice-president for education at Google. "After listening to schools, teachers, leading researchers, and policymakers, we are now updating our approach to controls for Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom, and Google Search. Access to these products will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on."

Japan plans to develop an AI-powered language-learning app that lets overseas anime and manga fans practice Japanese through conversations with popular characters. Japan is betting it can turn pop-culture fans into fluent Japanese speakers with a potential artificial intelligence-powered language-learning app through which users can practice conversations with popular characters. The app, which is to be developed by the Japan Foundation (JF) at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following budget approval for the next fiscal year, is expected to be completed by fiscal 2028 and will primarily target young people overseas who are interested in anime and manga. The app will use artificial intelligence to allow users to practice conversations with characters from popular anime and manga. It is also the first time the foundation has incorporated AI into its language-learning services.

When Jontay Porter was ten, his father woke him up most mornings before dawn. He and his siblings piled into the family's Sprinter van and drove to an empty field house off the highway. Then, while their friends slept, they ran basketball drills with their father. "All I remember is it still being pitch-black outside, and the two dreaded double doors on the side of the building that would always be left open for us," Jontay told me recently. In the bleary moments just before one of his siblings tugged the field-house doors open, Jontay always secretly wished that they'd be locked. And, one morning, they were. Jontay smiled as he climbed back into the van and drifted off to sleep. But his brother Michael, Jr., who was seventeen months older, was furious. "Michael was the opposite," Jontay said. Jontay grew up in Columbia, Missouri, the fourth of eight children. His father, Michael, Sr., worked in Christian ministry, and his mother, Lisa, homeschooled the children. Both had played college basketball--Lisa, as a high-school senior, had averaged a nearly impossible fifty-eight points per game--and they saw the sport as their children's ticket to college. All eight of the kids eventually got basketball scholarships. By the time Jontay was sixteen, he was six feet ten. In most families, as a five-star high-school recruit, Jontay would have been the main attraction. In 2010, their father got a job on the coaching staff for the women's team at the University of Missouri. The men's coach spotted Michael shooting alone in the arena one night and offered him a full scholarship; he was still in seventh grade. When he accepted it, as a high-school senior, he was the top recruit in the country. His highlight reels had racked up millions of views on YouTube. N.B.A. scouts believed that he could be the next Kevin Durant. "He's a game-changer," a league executive told the New York . Big state schools turn their best athletes into local celebrities, but the hype that followed Michael to Missouri's campus on his recruiting visits was closer to Beatlemania. Fans asked for autographs and took selfies. Jontay, who came along, was seduced by the hysteria. "Frat houses are putting up posters, and he's literally treated like a king," he recalled. "I wanted to be a part of that circus." He skipped his senior year of high school to join the team, too. The brothers were best friends. Still, it was sometimes hard to be one of the top players in the country but just the second best in his family. "He got all the attention," Jontay said.

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The following content is brought to you by Mashable partners. If you buy a product featured here, we may earn an affiliate commission or other compensation. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Get a Babbel lifetime subscription and access to all language lessons for $159 with code LEARN. Most language apps lean on vocab drills and matching games, and that kind of practice rarely prepares you to hold a conversation.

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We see it every single day," he says. "People who can't afford their medications, people who can't get appointments, you know, the care being denied, we're dealing with it. So I think having that experience in Washington gives a different perspective."

Google Is Forcing AI Overviews in Classrooms. Google is tying up AI Overviews with traditional search, angering parents and educators who worry that easy, machine-generated answers are leaving kids less capable. Two weeks ago, an IT administrator for an elementary-middle school took to Google's support forums requesting a way to block students from seeing AI Overviews --the chatbot-generated answers at the top of search results. "This seems counterproductive to what we're trying to teach," the administrator wrote . "Students need opportunities to navigate search results, examine sources, and draw their own conclusions rather than being handed an AI-generated synthesis before they've even started."

Concerns have been raised with the government about the amount of time primary school children are spending on a game designed to make learning times tables fun. TT Rockstars, which allows children to compete with their classmates for virtual coins and rock-star themed characters and outfits, is widely used by schools for maths homework. Labour MP Emily Darlington said the app and others like it could be harming children's development because it rewards them for length of time rather than quality of time spent online. Bruno Reddy, founder of the firm behind TT Rockstars, said he shared concerns about screen time and was working with schools to bring in curfews and time limits. He said the company discourages long sessions, adding: Every game in TTRS is deliberately short, and our characters remind children to take regular breaks.

Google, whose Chromebooks are the most widely used laptops in U.S. classrooms, has faced growing resistance to AI from parents and school districts. Schools that want their K-12 students to have access to Google Search will soon have to turn it on themselves, and the AI features built into Search will come with it, under changes the Alphabet company announced Tuesday. Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager of education, said in a blog post that Search, along with Google's Gemini chatbot, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Google Classroom, will be set off by default for K-12 student accounts until school administrators turn them on. Search, however, will include AI features. The company said it would share more specifics with schools "in the coming months" ahead of the rollout and that the decision followed conversations with schools, teachers, researchers and policymakers.