Protest against AI in schools, search block planned outside Google's Chicago office Wednesday

Parents, students and teachers plan to protest outside Google's Chicago office over the company's restriction of Google search in schools and embedded generative AI.

Google recently announced that students will not be able to access its search engine – the most popular in the world – at schools that ban AI use. Alphabet, the company that owns Google, said it will be turning off all artificial intelligence in its education apps for K-12 students unless the administrators expressly enable it.

Alphabet claims that AI is so ingrained in the Google search engine at this point, they cannot offer an AI-free version of Google search. Google searches now include an AI overview at the top of search results, before links to actual sources and websites.

Chicago Public Schools announced Monday it will be block generative AI tools including Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude on student accounts for student privacy and safety, and to comply with federal and state privacy laws including FERPA, COPPA and SOPPA.

The group of parents, teachers and students opposed to Google's latest AI policies and generative AI technology in education products are set to hold their rally Wednesday at 4 p.m. outside Google's offices in the 300 block of Morgan St., in Chicago's West Loop.

The group says that even though CPS pulled their Gemini chatbot rollout in August after pushback from families, Gemini AI features are still baked into every CPS student's Google account. CPS is one of hundreds of school districts nationwide that relies on Google hardware and software for students.

The group also cited a lawsuit filed in California earlier this year that alleges the AI Mode search on a 7th grade student's Chromebook pushed her into a mental health crisis that included planned suicide attempts.

And the group says despite CPS disabling generative AI, data is still "flowing" from CPS-approved apps to AI companies with notice to or consent from parents.

The protest is organized by Illinois Families for Public Schools, Schools Beyond Screens – CPS Chicago, Distraction Free Schools – Illinois, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago chapter of Veterans for Peace.