DuckDuckGo pitches schools after Google says dropping AI features loses Search

DuckDuckGo is making a play for the education market days after Google told schools that disabling parts of its AI stack would also cost them Google Search. According to TechCrunch, Google's announcement on Tuesday let education administrators turn off Gemini, but said shutting down its other AI features would take Search away with them — a bundling decision that drew immediate criticism and handed the privacy-focused rival an opening.

What Google told schools

Per TechCrunch's reporting, schools were told they could disable Gemini, but turning off Google's other AI features would remove Google Search as well. The stakes are large because of Google's grip on education: figures Google has published in previous years put roughly 50 million Chromebooks in schools, and Google Classroom serves more than 150 million users globally.

Educators have been wrestling with AI in classrooms for a while. TechCrunch notes that Google built a feature called Guided Learning, designed to walk students through problem-solving steps instead of simply handing over answers. Even so, many teachers have been asking for tools that let them strip AI out of the learning process altogether.

Google's response

After the backlash, Google defended the move, saying it was responding to feedback from schools. In a post on X, its news account said Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search would all be off by default, and that schools could enable each one individually — framing the change as giving schools more choice, not less.

The catch, as TechCrunch points out, is that Google Search is now heavily AI-driven, serving AI Overviews and a conversational AI Mode that answers queries directly. A school that wants Search but not AI-generated summaries appears to have no middle path: the two arrive as a package.

DuckDuckGo moves in

DuckDuckGo reacted quickly. Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg posted on X pointing to the company's online documentation explaining how schools can change their default search engine to DuckDuckGo, adding, "get in touch for help." Chief public affairs officer Kamyl Bazbaz went further, writing: "Forcing AI on school children: how a monopolist behaves when they think people are powerless. Prove Google wrong."

In an email to TechCrunch, the company also argued that Google could easily switch off Search's AI features for schools if it chose to — framing the bundling as a business decision rather than a technical necessity.

Not an anti-AI company

DuckDuckGo is careful not to cast itself as opposed to AI. It offers its own AI tools, including a chat interface called Duck.ai and an AI search assistant. The difference, the company says, is that users can disable those features in both its search and browser settings, and it operates a dedicated site, noai.duckduckgo.com, where AI-assisted answers, AI-generated images and AI feature suggestions are all turned off.

That flexibility appears to be paying off commercially. The company reported earlier this year that its app installs were up 30%, which it attributed to users pushing back against AI being pushed into their search results.

Why it matters

This is a fight over defaults, and defaults decide what tens of millions of students encounter every day. Google's dominance in education — Chromebooks, Classroom and Search — makes any change to how its products are bundled a decision with real classroom consequences, and the episode shows that an opt-out buried in settings is no longer enough for many educators.

It also signals that AI toggles are becoming a competitive feature in their own right. TechCrunch observes that the public is ambivalent about AI right now — the same week's elections suggested resistance to having AI data centers built locally, even as AI use at work and school becomes routine. In that environment, a rival that lets users switch AI off cleanly has a genuine pitch, and Google has just given it a stage in one of its strongest markets.