Jacob Aron
Role at the time: News editor at New Scientist, in a signed column
Condemned
Statement summary
Aron writes that Google is giving schools an all-or-nothing choice, that keeping AI Overviews in school Search is a product decision rather than a technical necessity, and that Google could offer schools a way to turn them off.
“Google really is presenting schools with an all-or-nothing choice. This is a product decision, not a technical one. AI Overviews do not appear on every search, and they can be disabled for every search by adding a short code to the URL. Google could surely provide schools with this option, if it wished.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Google shouldn't be pressuring schools to use its AIFull column
Why we used this label
The reference point is Google's school access policy for Search and its AI tools. Aron says Google is choosing to give schools an all-or-nothing choice and argues that tech companies should not set education policy, which expressly criticizes the policy.