WASHINGTON — Senators Demand Google Answers on School AI Risks

Google is facing bipartisan Senate scrutiny over its artificial intelligence tools in American classrooms, after two senators demanded the company detail what it knows about harm to children's mental health and academic performance, according to the New York Post.

What triggered the Senate inquiry?

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, sent a letter Wednesday to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai demanding answers about the company's AI products in schools, the Post reported, citing a copy of the letter it obtained. The senators wrote they harbored "grave concern" that Google's "aggressive push of AI products to children in schools is threatening the academic success and overall wellbeing of an entire generation," according to the letter.

What specific harms are lawmakers citing?

Blumenthal and Hawley asked whether Google has identified instances in which its classroom AI tools "encouraged a minor to engage in harmful behavior, emotional dependence, or failed to detect signs of suicidal or self-harm ideation," the Post reported. The lawmakers also cited the case of a Maryland teenager who was hospitalized after developing what the senators described as an intense dependence on the company's AI, according to the letter.

What are senators demanding from Google?

The letter presses Google to disclose the extent of its knowledge about potential risks to children and to explain why AI integration has been made the default setting on educational devices used in schools, the Post reported. Blumenthal and Hawley also asked the company to detail what safeguards exist to prevent chatbots from engaging in inappropriate emotional exchanges with minors, and to provide an accounting of how much Google has spent promoting AI adoption in schools. "Google is forcing their AI products into classrooms across America, and children are paying the price," the senators wrote, according to the letter obtained by the Post.

What did the Wall Street Journal investigation find?

The senators' letter follows a Sept. 30 Journal investigation that detailed how Google's AI tools have fueled academic and emotional dependence among students, the Post reported. The Post said the Journal's reporting was the first to surface the letter to Pichai.

What happens next?

The letter does not carry the force of a subpoena, and the Post's report does not specify a deadline for Google's response or indicate whether either senator has scheduled a hearing. The inquiry adds Google to a list of technology companies facing bipartisan congressional pressure over AI products marketed to minors, following earlier reporting on chatbot safety concerns across the industry. Google has not yet issued a public response included in the Post's account.

The letter represents one of the more direct bipartisan challenges to a major technology company's classroom AI strategy to date, pairing a Democrat long focused on child online safety with a Republican who has pushed antitrust and child-protection measures against large tech platforms. Any further congressional action, including a formal hearing or legislative response, was not detailed in available reporting.