--- title: "Mamdani Blasts Google for Using Monopoly to Bully Schools That Ban AI" description: "NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized Google for cutting off access to its search engine to schools that don't want to use its AI." date: "2026-11-08" modified: "2026-11-08" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mamdani-blasts-google-bullying-schools" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Education" - "Future Society" - "Google" --- # Mamdani Blasts Google for Using Monopoly to Bully Schools That Ban AI ![A photo shows NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani.]() *Lev Radin / Shutterstock* New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani blasted Google's decision to block its search engine in schools that restrict its AI features. "Google is trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools," he [wrote]() in a social media statement. "No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children." "Our public schools exist to serve students," Mamdani added, "not to grow the profit margins of Big Tech." Google announced Tuesday that it would turn off AI features in its software for students unless school administrators specifically chose to activate them — something educators have been asking for. But with this seeming act of goodwill, Google smuggled in a twist: if schools decide to restict all its AI features, it would also disable their access to Google Search. In a statement to the *New York Times*, which [first reported the decision](), Google vice president for education Chris Phillips offered little by way of explanation, stating that "Search and AI are deeply integrated." Strictly speaking, this is true, and by being intentionally vague Google is giving the impression that it's a technical problem, not a deliberate choice to ice out AI-wary schools. Its search engine is now laden with AI features. And even before the post-2022 chatbot boom, it long [used AI algorithms to improve its search results](). Search and AI are indeed "deeply integrated," then, but does it have to be this way? Before chatbots, the way Google Search integrated AI still encouraged you to perform the actual act of searching through information instead of giving you entire answers. Even its old-school "featured snippets" that appeared above search results pulled stuff from a webpage word-for-word, prominently linking to the original source and ensuring that nothing was being lost in AI hallucination. Since then, Google has added its AI Overviews and a full-blown AI mode, turning the experience into something more like using a chatbot. Now, when you search on Google, the top of the page features an AI summary and chat window that will automatically synthesize lengthy answers to even the most specific queries, presenting them authoritatively despite the AI being notoriously prone to hallucinating. A casual user, or the average student, has almost no reason to chase down actual sources of information. That's worrying to parents and educators, who want their children to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to research problems independently. The problem is only exacerbated when a child is given access to a full-fledged chatbot product, such as Google Gemini. Along with the wealth of studies suggesting a reliance on these tools [impacts critical thinking ](), many school districts are wary of thrusting a technology that's become synonymous with effortless cheating at school assignments into students' hands. Mamdani has made AI in education a key part of his agenda. In September, he [announced a one-year moratorium]() on New York City schools using AI in the classroom, a policy he called the "most comprehensive of its kind anywhere in the country." For Google, amid all these concerns, to tell schools it'll now cut off their search access if they restrict AI comes off as an unusually spiteful move. It is by far the dominant search engine and most people's gateway to the internet. Its bargaining power in this standoff with schools is incalculably outsized — hence Mamdani's accusation that it's using "monopoly power to force AI into our public schools." A federal judge, on that note, ruled in 2024 that Google held an illegal monopoly over the search engine market and used its dominance to shut out competitors. There's a compelling argument that it's now doing something similar with schools, hoping that it can strong-arm them into submission so it can guarantee that this generation of children will be future customers by getting them hooked on its AI ecosystem. **More on education:** [*The Tech Industry’s Aggressive Push to Integrate AI Into Schools Is Turning Into a Disaster*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Google Announces It’s Shutting Off Search Engine Access for Schools That Ban AI]() - [Zohran Mamdani Bans AI for NYC Public School Students Up to Eighth Grade]() - [Google’s New AI Says Google Is a Monopoly and the Government Should Break It Up]() - [Google Hit With Lawsuit Over Its Loathsome AI Overviews]() - [Google’s AI Is Scraping Even Sites That Ask to Be Ignored]() - [AI-Powered High School Scrapped After Protests Erupt Against It]() - [A Staggering Proportion of High School Kids Are Using AI to Do Their Homework, Which Is Probably Not Going to End Well]() - [Law School Bans Laptops and Phones as AI Cheating Scandal Grows]()