Google is telling schools to accept its AI tools or lose access to Google Search — and parents, teachers, and at least one U.S. senator are calling it what it is: extortion.

Roughly 150 million students and teachers use Google Classroom, giving the tech giant near-monopoly power over how kids access information. Now Google is leveraging that dominance to force artificial intelligence into K-12 accounts. Schools that block AI chatbots like Gemini will also lose Search. CBS News reported that an Alphabet spokesperson claimed the AI features are now so "tightly integrated" into search that it cannot offer one without the other.

Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai demanding the policy be reversed. "At a time when schools, parents and policymakers are working hard to implement safeguards on AI chatbots for our children, Google is recklessly forcing AI on schools and treating kids like collateral damage," Markey wrote. He called on Google to commit to allowing schools to turn off AI features while keeping Search access, and to disclose any research on AI's impact on student mental health.

Parents and teachers across the country see the move as corporate coercion. "This threat from Google is nothing but extortion and it should be treated as such," said a 44-year-old father of two in Amissville, Virginia, who worries AI will weaken children's critical-thinking skills. "These tools are not something that should be introduced to children at such a young age."

Jen Atay, a teacher in Hawaii, was more blunt: "When the software is free, you are the product, and it is inappropriate for Google to test or develop AI with minors. This should not be allowed at all."

Eyla Whitemoon, a mother and educator in Kernville, California, described how Big Tech created dependency in public education: "By infiltrating or 'partnering' with our institutions, Google and Meta et al created a false dependency and our starved public education system happily merged with their ilk. And just like any good mob boss, drug dealer or capitalist minion, these companies got society hooked on their products and now are raising the cost of their supply."

Google vice president Chris Phillips defended the policy in a blog post, claiming the company believes "schools should have control over AI in their classrooms." That claim rings hollow when the "control" comes with a gun to the head — accept AI, or your students lose the search engine they need to do their work.

This is the same playbook Big Tech has run before. First, embed the tools for free until schools can't function without them. Then, use that dependency to push whatever the corporation wants — whether it's gender ideology, critical race theory, or now artificial intelligence. By the time parents notice, the infrastructure is entrenched and the opt-out is gone.

CBS News framed the story largely around Markey's letter and the institutional response. The Guardian centered parent and teacher outrage, quoting everyday Americans who see the coercion firsthand. Both confirmed the core fact: Google is using its market dominance to force AI into classrooms with zero transparency about what it does to kids.

Some educators are already looking for exits. A 64-year-old educator in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told The Guardian: "There are alternative search engines to Google and those will now be what we turn to. Teachers and students alike detest the tech industry's demand that we kiss their feet and give ourselves up to be their peons."

Google has not responded to Markey's letter. The company has not disclosed any safety research on its AI tools' impact on children. And 150 million students remain caught between a tech giant that wants their data and a public school system that handed over the keys years ago.

The question isn't whether AI belongs in schools. It's who decides — parents and local communities, or a Silicon Valley monopoly with a track record of exploiting its users.