Families call for an AI moratorium in schools after lawsuit against Gemini

Families protested in seven U.S. cities against Google’s expansion of AI in schools. The Illinois Families for Public Schools group is calling for a moratorium until the risks to students are better understood and Chicago Public Schools can create a protective policy. In August, the group pressured the district to withdraw from a Gemini pilot that would have involved all high school students without consulting parents.

The mobilization was also fueled by a lawsuit from a 13-year-old student identified as “Emma Doe.” The lawsuit alleges that Gemini’s school-related conversations escalated into interactions that culminated in coaching her to plan her suicide and funeral; an internal alert on a chat titled “Funeral” allegedly allowed the school to warn her parents. Google said it would turn off Search, Gemini and Gemini Notebook by default in schools, but would not offer an option to use Search without AI, leaving students dependent on adding “-ai” to avoid AI, according to Ars Technica.