DuckDuckGo courts schools frustrated with Google's ultimatum
4 Nov 3 7:23 PM · 4d ago · 18 articles · 23 posts · 23 comments · 7 sources · development 4 of 6
DuckDuckGo publicly pitched its ad-free, AI-optional search engine to schools and educators as an alternative, amplifying the backlash across social media and tech press.
“Schools shouldn't have to give up search to say no to AI, but that's the ultimatum Google is handing them.”
DuckDuckGoGoogle Policy makerLina Khan Former FTC chair
Zohran Mamdani New York City Mayor
Bernie Sanders U.S. Senator (I-VT)Tracy Frey Former Google director, responsible AI
The whole story articlespostscomments the bright band is this development · numbered dots are the others · click one to jump
What was reported 3 claims about this development
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first by Mastodon, 3d ago · also TechCrunch
1 more headline
- DuckDuckGo pitches itself to schools amid backlash over Google’s AI policy TechCrunch · 3d ago
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first by The Hill, 1d ago
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first by Newser, 4d ago
What people said 24 voices · best of 35 · verbatim
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H
It’s a constant process of seeing what they can get away with.
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Every now and then Big Tech will shoot themselves in the foot and send waves of disappointed users our way. Yesterday was one of these days, as Google doubled down on their efforts to force AI down everyone's throats — this time school students. So if you're a teacher, a school administrator, or know anyone on any school boards, anywhere in the…
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>> When I subscribed, these features were provided by traditional ML, perhaps some BERT-like encoder architecture at most, however now I cannot keep that previous functionality if I don't wish to grant LLMs access to my data.Sorry for the sidetrack, but why is it so common to consider BERT something else than an LLM? It is one of the earliest LLMs…
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Students aren't doing that just to search the Internet on computers at school, so that isn't relevant to the conversation. The same can be said for Windows, how do you get a Windows ISO into a USB key for install? That probably eliminates almost 100% of casual computer users. Powells Books has been using a Linux distro to power their store search…
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google doing a bit of damage control from the uproar today but this is interesting to me childless man question: is it common to ban search in classrooms? the way “AI guided learning” is described seems to tackle the problem of kids googling to instantly get answers
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Schools shouldn't have to give up search to say no to AI, but that's the ultimatum Google is handing them. Turning AI off isn't a technical problem. It's a choice. noai.duckduckgo.com
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The "Google will cut off search to schools" headlines are so misleading. What is happening is that, for schools using Google Workspace or whatever they call the edu version of that, blocking AI features will block search (since the search results are AI slop). Which, as long as the search results are ensloppified, is probably the right thing to be…
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> Access to these products [AI and search] will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on.I do not put it past Google to hold access to search hostage unless schools use AI. However, the above quote could be interpreted as "turn on/off each tool individually" instead of collectively. Wouldnt be…
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I truly enjoyed using a surface with a pen for note taking in college. I still had to write notes and it was in my typical legible format and style of notes vs adapting word or whatever to bullet points notes for me. If we could improve upon that I think that would be the bridge. You still feel like you're writing but it also makes it easier to…
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U
BREAKING: Google turns off Gemini chatbot and Google Search by default for schoolchildren, per WSJ
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The expected outcome of monopoly power in the absence of regulation. People should be mad at the regulators. Not at a for-profit company that is just making use of its market reach. On the other hand, that's also a potential problem for Google: If people don't like AI search, they will inevitably start using another search engine. So, I don't see…
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A few days ago YouTube suddenly started showing me a selection of old Onion News Network videos including https://youtube.com/watch?v=ntICHMV-WMA , and https://youtube.com/watch?v=lMChO0qNbkY ! I should have known it was a warning.
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Yeah I came to the same conclusion after looking at the Google post, it sounds like schools will have control over which AI features students have access to. Google considers Google Search as an AI tool so it's just one of the tools that will be off by default from what I gather, it seems like whoever wrote this article just didn't understand the…
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reallllly not sure this response is gonna allay the antitrust and other concerns about AI being foisted on kids in schools.... www.cnbc.com/2026/11/03/g... story by Isabel O'Brien @cnbc.com
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..."This highlights the danger of allowing an unregulated monopolist to control an essential service," said [Lina] Khan, who now chairs the board of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit group that promotes economic growth and investment in New York... https://www. cbsnews.com/news/google-search -access-schools-ai-tools/…
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TIL you can turn off ai features!for those who didn't know how to do it:1. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/general2. under "Smart features:", toggle off "Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet"
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Just base the grade on standardised tests and not unreliable metrics like participation or homework. Studies show time and time again that standardised tests outperform pretty much all other evaluatikn methods for real world applicability and disadvantage poor children the least. They suck but they still suck less than all other metrics.
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That sounds like opportunity for something like Duck Duck Go, which does have AI available, but not at gunpoint.
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Students using Google software in the classroom will not be allowed to access the company’s search engine unless their school system also opts in to using artificial intelligence, the tech giant said Tuesday. https:// apnews.com/article/ai-schools- classroom-students-google-7ba4219e505db1c11d672f6eefe7155a
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That’s a bad move from Google because if there is really one place where you can get rid of Google search, it’s at school.Students don’t really carre if their school computer use DuckDuckGo or Google.And if you can even open student eyes on Google alternative, that’s a great thing.They are shooting themselves in the foot, and I’m glad they are…
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Was about to post the same thing. Google have made the OFF the default for their products, and the schools themselves then turn in as few or as many of those as they see fit. The title of this post is not misleading, it's outright disingenuous.
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And so, the nightmare of Ai oppression, submission and control begins..
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J
Never heard of AltaVista apparently.🤪 --- Google says there’s no way to use Search without using artificial intelligence | Google | The Guardian https://www. theguardian.com/technology/202 6/nov/03/google-search-artificial-intelligence
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Glad they did this change. It forced me to make actual filters rather than relying on gmail to filter to broad categories. Much better in the long run. Also I finally unsubscribed from things I would let go into promos and social but never read.
All 6 developments of Google retreats on all-or-nothing AI/Search rule for K-12… →
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