Senators Give Google Nov. 2 Deadline on AI Safeguards for Students

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are asking Google how its AI products reach students and how the company evaluates potential harm, putting school controls and child-safety research at the center of their inquiry.

In an Oct. 21 letter to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, they posed nine questions about research into risks to children, schools’ ability to manage AI settings and concerns from families and educators. They also ask why some features are defaults or cannot be disabled on certain education devices, and how much Google spends promoting AI in schools. The senators want to know whether Google tracks harmful interactions, emotional dependence or cases in which its products miss signs of suicide or self-harm.

“Google is forcing their A.I. products into classrooms across America, and children are paying the price,” Hawley and Blumenthal wrote.

The questions span products with different settings. Gemini for Education, separate from Google Search’s AI Overview and AI Mode, is available at no charge to qualifying institutions. School administrators can turn Gemini access on or off, and users under 18 receive a separate experience with added safeguards. In the July assessment’s tests, AI Overview and AI Mode could not be disabled, so Gemini’s administrator controls do not establish whether schools can manage Search features in the same way.

The July 2026 test covered 2,624 interactions from May 19 through July 1, using accounts set up for 11- and 15-year-olds. AI Mode produced complete answers that could be submitted for all 180 homework assignments tested. The assessment categorized 214 prompts per feature as warranting crisis support. AI Overview supplied an appropriate resource in 58% of those cases, compared with 77% for AI Mode.

The assessment measured product responses, not long-term student outcomes, and excluded the standalone Gemini app. Pichai’s response is due Nov. 2.