A Guide to AI in Education

Applying Google’s AI Principles

to our work in education
In 2018, we were one of the first
companies to establish AI Principles as
part of our commitment to developing
Google’s history, and future, in AI
technology responsibly. These are the
While AI is revolutionary technology, it’s not new to us. In fact, questions we ask when applying these
principles to our education tools:
it’s already in many Google products like Search, Gmail, Photos,
and YouTube to help make things better and safer behind the
1. Is it appropriate for education
scenes. And with more recent advances in generative AI, tools
(responsible, safe, & secure)?
like Gemini and NotebookLM offer even more exciting new
possibilities. 2. Is it clear to educators and
students what the benefits
We believe AI is going to help learners, educators, and school of using it are, and where
communities unlock potential in ways we can’t even imagine and how to start?
yet. From unleashing creativity to offering personal support
3. Is it helping all levels and
to supercharging productivity, AI can advance teaching and
backgrounds to succeed?
learning in all kinds of powerful and interesting ways.
4. Is the educator looped into
Breaking down AI, ML, LLMs, and gen AI the student experience to help
shape and guide (if needed)?
How to make sense of all these terms:
5. Is it enabling educators
● AI is a computer system taught to mimic natural intelligence and students to utilize our
to help us understand and recommend information workflows seamlessly?
● Machine learning (ML) is the technique that allows 6. Does it enable leaders to
machines to learn autonomously from data adequately and appropriately
● Large language models (LLMs) are machine learning support staff and students?
models that can understand, predict, and generate 7. Does it provide sufficient
human language tooling and control for leaders?
● Generative AI (gen AI) is a type of AI that focuses on 8. Does it adhere to requirements
creating new content – like text, images, music, audio, leaders are beholden to for their
code, and videos – by typing in a simple prompt institutions?

9. Does it provide leaders with the

A balance of bold and responsible
visibility and insights needed to
Google’s approach to AI has always been about balancing complete their work?
bold with responsible, and when it comes to tools designed
for education, we are especially thoughtful and deliberate.

This means applying our technological expertise and deep

knowledge of the educational space, while always keeping AI can never replace the
educators in the loop: working directly with the education expertise, knowledge, or
community to create products that are truly helpful in improving creativity of an educator –
the teaching and learning experience. When schools use our
but it can be a helpful tool to
AI-powered educational tools, they can feel confident that their
experience is safe and secure, and that it’s been responsibly enhance and enrich teaching
designed with educators and students in mind. and learning experiences.

© 2024 Google LLC. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

Putting AI to work in our solutions built for education

In education, AI can be used to do helpful things like make learning experiences more personal, provide
immediate feedback, improve accessibility, enhance digital security, give educators precious time back,
and so much more. When using Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks, institutions have
control over their data and assurance that it will never be used to train AI models outside of their domain
without permission.

Elevating the educator

AI can help give educators time back to invest in themselves and their students, while supercharging their
creativity and productivity.

More interactivity
Interactive questions for YouTube videos in Classroom delivers engaging video lessons
with automatically suggested questions that guide deeper learning.

More productivity
Gemini is a powerful AI assistant that can also provide creative inspiration – from helping
with lesson plans to writing emails. Gemini for Google Workspace provides access to gen
AI features right within Workspace apps, along with our most capable AI models.

More security
With AI-powered detection and remediation, Google Workspace for Education blocks over
99.9% of spam, phishing attempts, and malware. With features like Verified Boot to block
threats, there have been zero reported successful ransomware attacks on Chromebooks.

Making learning more personal for students

AI can help meet students where they are, with adaptive tools that help them expand their knowledge and
deepen their understanding of the world.

More supportive
Teen students will soon be able to use Gemini with their Workspace accounts to learn safely,
more confidently, and to prepare for an AI-first future with guided assistance, practice
materials, and real-time feedback and ideas.

More accessible
AI built into Chromebooks provides advanced text-to-speech, dictation, and live and closed
captions. Google Meet uses AI for automatic transcription, noise cancellation, and captions.

More adaptive
Read Along in Classroom uses advanced text-to-speech and the power of your voice to
help build reading skills at a personal pace.

Check out how we’re working

* Product and feature availability will evolve over
to advance education with AI time and may not be available in all markets.

© 2024 Google LLC. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

Resources to help your school community use AI

Learn best practices and tips on getting the most out of gen AI while using this technology responsibly.

Educators Students, parents, and guardians

AI basics course: Generative AI for Educators Video: How to use gen AI responsibly

Gemini course: Get started with Gemini for Google Workspace Video: How teens can uplevel learning with gen AI

20+ ways to use Gemini for Google Workspace in education Guardian’s Guide to AI

Demos: Gemini for Google Workspace

Video series: Discovering AI with Google for Education Champions

Frequently asked questions about AI in Google for Education

Accounts and access

What’s the difference between AI tools available with a school-issued Google Account
versus a personal Google account?

School-issued Google account Personal Google account

Google for Education is a suite of tools including Google Other Google tools, like Google Search and YouTube, may be
Workspace for Education and Chromebooks, which are used for learning-related purposes, but may not necessarily
designed for teaching and learning in school settings. These be accessible from a supervised or school-issued Google
secure, private accounts are managed by school IT admins. Workspace for Education account. Personal Google accounts
are governed by Google’s Consumer Terms of Service and
School admins are able to use tools with robust privacy Privacy Policy, where users have the option to disable
controls to restrict what students see and do online with personalized advertising – and it’s automatically disabled for
their school-issued accounts. With parental consent, school users under 18. Google provides tools like Family Link to help
admins can enable and disable individual services that are not parents and guardians manage their children’s accounts,
a part of Google Workspace for Education Core Services. devices, and online activity, with features like app approval
There is no advertising in Google Workspace for Education and screen time limits.
Core Services, and user data from school accounts is never
used for ads personalization. There is no connection between a student’s school account
and their personal account – meaning that any data from
school does not follow learners into their personal account,
nor does it follow them after they graduate.

© 2024 Google LLC. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

Frequently asked questions about AI in Google for Education

Do students under 18 have access to generative AI tools?

To ensure we’re bringing AI to our tools and our students responsibly, we consulted with child safety and development experts like
the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), partnered with learning science experts, tested with youth advisory panels, and continue
to work closely with educators around the world. Additionally, we’re rolling out advanced admin controls and user safeguards across
Google for Education AI-powered tools.

● Chromebooks: Gen AI features are available to educators and students 18 years and older. These features are disabled by
default for users under 18 with admin controls in Google Admin console.

● Gemini for Workspace: Available to educators and students 18 years and older.

● Gemini: In the coming months, Gemini with extra data protection will be available to teen students that meet our minimum age
requirements while using their Google Workspace for Education accounts. Gemini will be off by default for teens until school
admins choose to turn it on through Gemini settings.

Before expanding student access to Gemini, Google trained the model to recognize content that is inappropriate to younger users
and implemented safety features and guardrails to help prevent it from appearing in responses. The first time a user asks a
fact-based question, we’ll automatically run our double-check response feature, which helps evaluate whether there’s content
across the web to substantiate Gemini’s response. And to help students develop their critical thinking skills, Gemini recommends
teens use the double-check response feature for their output.

What is LearnLM and how does it impact Google's educational tools?

LearnLM is our new family of models fine-tuned for learning, based on Gemini. Grounded in educational research and tailored to
how people learn, LearnLM works across several Google products to make them better at teaching and learning. With LearnLM, we
are building gen AI experiences for schools guided by learning science principles to inspire active learning and curiosity and to
adapt to learners. For more on Google’s approach to improving generative AI for education, read our technical report which
highlights how we’re working together with the AI and EdTech communities to responsibly maximize its positive impact.

Educator guidance and expertise

Does Google consult with educators and experts when developing AI tools for use in the classroom?

Yes. When introducing any new technology, we believe it’s important to be thoughtful about its development and implementation.
We’re committed to partnering with schools and educators, as well as other education experts and organizations like Columbia
Teachers College, Arizona State University, and NYU Tisch throughout product development and beyond.

We don’t just build for educators, we build with them. For our AI-powered products, Google for Education:

● Consults with child safety and development experts like the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), ConnectSafely, the Future of
Privacy Forum, and more to help shape our content policies
● Partners with learning science experts to improve tools made for teaching and learning
● Tests with youth advisory panels to understand their global perspectives and experiences
● Works closely with school communities through Customer Advisory Boards and Google for Education pilot program to gather
feedback on our products and features before making them widely available

By listening to these perspectives, understanding how they’re using our tools, and we can thoughtfully address educator and
student challenges with the products we develop. We also roll out new features gradually, ensuring that schools can stay in
control and do what works best for them.

© 2024 Google LLC. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

Frequently asked questions about AI in Google for Education

Safety and privacy

How does Google keep student data safe and secure?

With Google for Education, privacy and security are priorities – and the very foundation of our platform. All of our Google Workspace
for Education Core Services – like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Classroom – share a common foundation: They’re secure by default,
private by design, and free from advertising. While gen AI capabilities introduce new ways of interacting with our tools, our privacy
policies and commitments keep users and organizations in control of their data now more than ever.

These core tools all meet rigorous local, national, and international compliance standards, including GDPR, FERPA, and COPPA. And
schools and users always maintain the ability to control their data. Google Workspace for Education is built on our secure, reliable,
industry-leading technology infrastructure and users get the same level of security that Google uses to protect our own services,
which are trusted by over a billion users around the world every day. Chromebooks are designed with multiple layers of security, using
AI behind the scenes, to keep them safe from viruses and malware without any additional software required. Each time a Chromebook
powers on, security is checked. And because they can be managed centrally, Chromebooks make it easy for school IT admins to
configure policies and settings, like enabling safe browsing or blocking malicious sites.

Does Google use my data from Gemini to train AI models?

When using Gemini with a Gemini for Google Workspace license, users are covered under the Google Workspace for Education Terms
of Service, and their chats with Gemini are not used to improve AI models.

Gemini is also offered free of charge as an Additional Service for all Google Workspace for Education users. This Gemini experience is
covered under the Google Terms of Service and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice. This experience will soon have added data protection,
meaning chats with Gemini are not used to improve AI models.

How does Google ensure its AI-enabled technology is safe for kids?
Google takes the safety and security of its users very seriously, especially children. With technology as bold as AI, we believe it is
imperative to be responsible from the start. That means designing our AI features and products with age-appropriate experiences
and protections that are backed by research. And prior to launching any product, we conduct rigorous testing to ensure that our
tools minimize potential harms, and work to ensure that a variety of perspectives are included to identify and mitigate unfair bias.

Do schools own the content they generate with gen AI tools?

Yes. When you use Gemini to generate original content, Google does not own any new intellectual property created in the generated
output. Unlike other gen AI tools, the content that each person in your school community generates is owned by your school, not
Google.

You can learn more about Google for Education’s commitment to privacy and
security at our Google for Education Privacy and Security page, in our Google
Workspace for Education Privacy Notice, and in a primer on some differences between
Google Workspace for Education Core Services and Additional Services.

© 2024 Google LLC. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.