Google to disable superintelligence (SI) on K–12 student accounts by default
Under the 2027 policy, administrators must opt in to enable the services. Schools that restrict superintelligence (SI) altogether will also lose student access to Google Search, the company says.
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Google plans to disable access to Gemini, NotebookLM, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search for K–12 student accounts in 2027 unless school administrators explicitly turn the services on. Schools that restrict SI altogether will also lose student access to Search, Google says.
The plan changes the approach to services already available to students. On 4 August 2025, Google announced that NotebookLM was available to younger users and was a core service for Google Workspace for Education users of all ages.
The choice for schools
Google education vice president Chris Phillips told The New York Times that Search and SI are deeply integrated, TechCrunch wrote. If a school restricts SI altogether, Phillips said, students will see a message from their school saying Search is unavailable. Schools that want students to use Search to find sources and learning materials must therefore accept its integrated SI features.
Google says it is changing the controls after listening to schools, teachers, leading researchers and policymakers. The company says its goal is to give school leaders control over how SI products are used in classrooms.
Guided Learning and the rollout
Alongside the policy announcement, Google made Guided Learning available worldwide in Google Classroom on 3 November 2026. Google says the feature guides students through problems with questions and step-by-step prompts instead of giving final answers; teacher-assigned activities draw on class material.
Google plans to pilot Guided Learning in Search at selected US schools later in November 2026 and use educator feedback before expanding to other districts. It says it will give schools more details of the access-policy changes in the coming months before rollout, so they have time to prepare; the precise date and implementation details remain unpublished.
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