DuckDuckGo Courts Classrooms

DuckDuckGo is trying to turn a school technology dispute into an opening.

After Google told schools they could disable Gemini but would lose Google Search if they shut off its other AI features as well, DuckDuckGo publicly urged educators to make its search engine the default instead. Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg pointed schools to the company’s documentation on changing search settings and offered help with the switch. Its public affairs chief, Kamyl Bazbaz, was blunter, accusing Google of forcing AI on children.

The fight matters because schools are not choosing between small products at the margins. Google has said in previous years that about 50 million Chromebooks are used in schools, and that Google Classroom serves more than 150 million users globally. When a company with that reach changes how search and AI can be separated, the practical question for schools becomes less philosophical than administrative: how much control do they still have over what students see by default?

Google pushed back after the criticism, saying schools would have more choice, not less. The company said Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search would be off by default, and that schools could enable them individually. But that does not fully resolve the complaint. Search itself now includes AI-driven features such as AI Overviews and a conversational AI Mode, so “Search on” no longer means a plainly non-AI experience in the way many educators may want.

DuckDuckGo is not arguing from a rejection of AI as such. The company has its own AI tools, including a chat interface and an AI search assistant. Its pitch is narrower and, for schools, potentially more attractive: those features can be disabled, it says, and it offers a separate no-AI version of its search site where AI answers, generated images and feature prompts are turned off.

That does not mean schools will move in large numbers. Google’s hold on education is built into devices, accounts, classroom workflows and procurement habits, not just search settings. Changing a default search engine is easier than leaving an ecosystem.

Still, the dispute exposes a sharper issue than brand rivalry. For schools, “AI choice” is only meaningful if administrators can remove AI where they judge it unhelpful, not merely decline one branded assistant while AI remains threaded through the search box children use for ordinary schoolwork.