Sanders Blasts Google Over AI: 'That's Not Love. That's Extortion.'

Senator Bernie Sanders came out swinging at Google on Tuesday, calling the company's treatment of schools an act of extortion. His target: reports that schools which ban artificial intelligence could lose their access to Google Search. Sanders took to X to make his case directly to the public, and he didn't soften a single word.

In his post, the Vermont senator tied the move to a bigger argument about who gets to police AI. He wrote that President Trump claimed AI oligarchs could regulate themselves because they 'love our country,' then added: 'if you stop your students from using AI, we will cut off your access to Google Search. That's not love. That's extortion.' Sanders also pushed for an immediate pause on AI development.

Google's side of the story looks different on paper. The company announced that AI tools and Google Search would be switched off by default for K-12 students until a school explicitly turns them on. Alongside that, Google rolled out Guided Learning features inside Search and Classroom, built to walk students through problems step by step rather than just hand over answers.

So the fight is really about control of the classroom. Google frames its defaults as a safety-first setup that puts schools in the driver's seat. Sanders frames it as leverage, with a core Google product used as the pressure point against districts that want AI kept out.

The clash lands in the middle of a busy week for AI news, with Apple opening Siri AI to third-party developers, Netflix testing an AI-powered discovery tab, and Anthropic reportedly using Claude to help design its own chips. Big Tech's fingerprints are suddenly on everything from search to homework to streaming.

What happens next is unclear. Google hasn't publicly answered Sanders' accusation, and the senator has given no sign he's backing off. For now, the standoff sits with schools themselves, who have to decide whether to opt in or go without.