DuckDuckGo challenges Google in education market with privacy-focused AI alternative

As Google faces criticism regarding its school AI policy, DuckDuckGo is actively marketing its services to educational institutions, seeking to enter a market long dominated by the tech giant. While Google recently informed schools that Gemini AI could be disabled, it stipulated that turning off other AI features would prevent the use of Google Search. DuckDuckGo, a privacy-centric search engine, sees this as a prime opportunity, noting that approximately 50 million Chromebooks are used in schools and Google Classroom serves over 150 million global users. Gabriel Weinberg, the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, shared instructions on X for schools to change their default search engine, while Chief Public Affairs Officer Kamyl Bazbaz issued a pointed critique, stating that forcing schoolchildren to use AI is a tactic employed by monopolists. The company also condemned Google's move, asserting that Google could easily deactivate search AI features if it chose to. DuckDuckGo offers its own Duck.ai interface, which users can disable in settings, and provides a dedicated site, noai.duckduckgo.com, to turn off AI-assisted answers and image generation. This flexibility is reportedly driving growth, as the company reported a 30% rise in app installations earlier this year amid user resistance to mandatory Google AI search. This development highlights the ongoing debate over AI integration boundaries in education.