As Google faces backlash over its school AI policy, DuckDuckGo is starting to pitch its services to schools, aiming to break into an education market long dominated by Google. Earlier on Tuesday, Google told schools they could turn off Gemini AI technology, but said that disabling other AI features would prevent schools from using Google Search.
DuckDuckGo is an alternative search engine focused on user privacy and limiting data collection, and it clearly sees this as a good opportunity to enter the education sector. According to data previously released by Google, about 50 million Chromebooks are currently in use in schools, and its Google Classroom platform has more than 150 million users worldwide.
DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg posted an online company document on X explaining how schools can switch their default search engine to DuckDuckGo, and said, "Contact us for help." Chief Public Affairs Officer Kamyl Bazbaz issued a stronger statement, saying, "Forcing schoolchildren to use AI: what monopolists do when they think people are powerless. Prove Google wrong." In an email to TechCrunch, the company condemned Google's decision and said Google could easily turn off search AI features for schools if it wanted to.
The statement comes as the American public weighs the boundaries of AI's integration into daily life. Election results on Tuesday night showed people opposing the construction of AI data centers in their towns, but using AI at work and in learning has already become commonplace. Google had previously developed "guided learning" technology to address educators' application challenges, helping children learn through step-by-step guidance rather than directly giving answers, but educators still want tools that can remove AI entirely from the learning process. After the backlash, Google defended itself by saying it was only responding to school feedback: Gemini, Gemini Notebook, and Search features would be off by default, and schools could enable them individually. The problem is that Google Search now heavily uses AI Overviews and conversational AI modes to answer queries.
DuckDuckGo is not opposed to AI. It offers its own Duck.ai chat interface and AI search assistant, but unlike Google, users can disable these features in search and browser settings. The company also provides a dedicated website, noai.duckduckgo.com, where users can turn off AI-assisted answers, AI-generated images, and AI feature suggestions. This flexibility may be driving demand growth—earlier this year, the company reported a 30% increase in app installations as users refused to be forced into using Google AI search. This move reflects the controversy over the boundaries of AI penetration in education and also provides a differentiated competitive opening for privacy-oriented search tools.
