Latest news with #ShantanuSinha
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Google Overhauls Its Education Suite With Free, Powerful AI For All
Top down View: Children in a School Use Tablets and Laptops to Study Digital Literacy, AI Data Lines ... More Connect into Learning. Diverse Kids Connected Through Digital Knowledge Network, Modern Technology Today at the ISTE education conference in San Antonio, Google dropped a series of announcements that could fundamentally reshape how AI fits into the classroom. In a sweeping move that positions artificial intelligence not as an add-on but as the new baseline, the company introduced major updates to its education suite. These updates make its most powerful tools free for schools across the globe. At the heart of the rollout is Google's Gemini AI, now fully integrated across its ecosystem for education. No longer gated behind premium subscriptions or experimental rollouts, Gemini is now baked into Google Workspace for Education at no cost. That means millions of teachers and students now have direct access to one of the most advanced AI models in the world, with higher usage caps than what's offered to average consumers. 'We're not just adding features,' said Shantanu Sinha, VP of Google for Education. 'We're reshaping the entire foundation of how we support teaching and learning in the AI age.' A New Standard The biggest headline from Google's announcement is simple but seismic: Gemini for Education is now the default experience for all Google education accounts. Schools that once hesitated due to budget or privacy concerns now find themselves with enterprise-grade tools and protections. Crucially, Google reiterated that it won't use educational account data to train its models. This point was underscored by its recent certification from Common Sense Media, a third-party privacy seal that will likely ease administrators' nerves. For schools wanting deeper AI capabilities, a new premium tier called Google AI Pro for Education is also launching. It rolls previous paid tiers into one consolidated offering, unlocking features like AI-generated audio lessons and expanded content creation tools. AI in the Classroom The most visible impact will likely be felt in Google Classroom. Teachers logging in will soon see a new Gemini tab, a sort of AI control center offering over 30 education-specific tools designed to streamline and enrich teaching. Teachers can now generate entire lesson plans, build vocabulary lists with example sentences, craft math problems and quizzes, draft parent emails, and even receive prompts to gamify classroom content. And all of this is free to anyone with a Google Workspace for Education account. 'We're giving teachers their time back,' said Cinthya Mohr, a product lead at Google Classroom. 'Our goal is to let them focus on the art of teaching, not the paperwork behind it.' Personalized Learning Google also revealed new student-facing tools that expand the concept of personalized AI-powered learning. NotebookLM, a popular research and study assistant, will soon be available to students under 18 via school accounts. Google says it includes content safety layers tailored for young learners. Meanwhile, 'Gems', which are customizable versions of Gemini built around specific educational goals, can now be created by instructional leaders and shared across an entire district. A teacher might design a Gem trained solely on class materials, transforming it into a Socratic tutor for after-school study help. These tools can be assigned through Google Classroom or integrated platforms like Canvas and Schoology, creating a seamless workflow between planning, teaching, and learning. In addition, teachers will now be able to use NotebookLM and Gems to: Educators will also be able to tag coursework with national or state learning standards and get analytics on student performance across assignments. Smarter Tools for Creativity Creativity also gets a boost through the expanded rollout of Google Vids. Now available to all Google Workspace for Education users, Vids allows: Smarter Devices AI's reach doesn't stop at software. Google is also upgrading the hardware and systems that run the modern classroom. A new teaching mode for managed Chromebooks, dubbed Class tools, gives educators real-time classroom control. Features include: Broadcasting instructions with live-translated captions for multilingual or hearing-impaired learners. Real-time student screen sharing, helping teachers track focus or showcase work. A 'Focus mode' that locks devices to specific tabs or apps, reducing distractions and helping younger students navigate with ease. On the device front, Google is partnering with Lenovo to launch the first Chromebook Plus with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), enabling fast, on-device AI processing. New Chromebox OPS units from partners like LG and CTL will also make it easier for schools to convert smart boards into ChromeOS-powered teaching hubs. Looking Ahead Taken together, these announcements mark a shift for Google and the entire educational tech sector. By embedding powerful AI directly into free tools already in widespread use, Google is forcing a rethink of what digital learning should look like in 2025 and beyond. Where AI once required extra funding, special training, or cautious pilots, Google is trying to make it turnkey. The road ahead isn't without its bumps. Many schools may lack the modern hardware needed to fully benefit from these upgrades. And while the tools are user-friendly, effective adoption will still depend on investing in professional development. Teachers need support—not just to use AI, but to shape it into something that reflects their values and pedagogy. But if there's one clear message from Google's ISTE showcase, it's this: the AI era of education has well and truly arrived.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Forbes
Google's AI Education Strategy. An Interview With Google Execs
You could feel it in the Mountain View air, something more than the usual Silicon Valley hum. It was Google I/O week, and AI was the phrase on everyone's lips. Education, with its high stakes and profound human impact, felt like it was right in the crosshairs. I had the opportunity to have a conversation with two individuals at the forefront of Google's education initiatives: Byan Lee, the Vice President for ChromeOS and Education, who is actively leading the global push for Education in Chrome, and Shantanu Sinha, the Vice President of Google for Education, who is responsible for overseeing Product and Engineering. I wanted to cut through the noise, to really get how a company at AI's cutting edge is thinking about weaving this tech into the messy, wonderful and incredibly varied world of global education. We kicked things off with what's happening right now. "I feel like at the moment, with artificial intelligence, we are really grasping the linear innovation," I threw out there. "You know, how can this tool whip up a lesson plan or create a resource? We were probably going to do it anyway... but this makes it faster." It's the obvious stuff, the quick wins that lighten a teacher's load and smooth out the daily grind. Shantanu Sinha got it immediately. That first step, he stressed, is huge. "You really do have to ensure that you're as helpful as possible for the people today, right? Like, that's critical," he said. "Helping a teacher do what they're trying to do today , we pride ourselves on building really great tools across Workspace, Classroom, and Chromebooks that help educators... And that's critical to really get adoption." If it's not useful out of the gate, he figured, the bigger changes just won't stick. But for Shantanu, that's just the starting line. He talked about it like a "spectrum." Get people comfortable using AI for the everyday things, and slowly, they start seeing what else it can do. "Once people start using technology, they discover new ways and new things that they can do with it," he told me. He then shared this fantastic story from a pilot in Northern Ireland. Educators there, given AI tools, came up with over 500 different uses in no time. Some were small time-savers, but others were game-changers. That, for me, was it. That's how you get to the exciting, nonlinear stuff. Not by forcing it, but by letting people discover it themselves once they're comfortable. "You really have to unleash the creativity of your end users," Shantanu said, "but they have to be comfortable with the technology first." Bryn Lee then brought in the all-important global view. "There are countries that are vastly in different situations than others," he reminded me. His teams don't just parachute in with tech. They start by figuring out what education ministries, districts, and states are actually trying to achieve. "We really work with... what their goals are, and then trying to map our technology to what their goals are." For some, that's diving deep into AI strategy; for others, it's the basics, like getting kids online. You need that kind of real-world, flexible approach because, let's face it, education looks wildly different from one place to the next. Before you can even dream about AI revolutionizing learning, there's something you absolutely can't skip: trust. We're all hyper-aware of data privacy these days, especially when it comes to kids. For Google, this is ground zero. Bryan was crystal clear: "It is really focusing on the foundation of what sets us apart within Google for Education, which is really how we think about data processing, the security, keeping our students safe, making sure that we've met all the requirements." He talked about Google's commitment to top-notch data controls and making sure Gemini, as a core service, has all those protections baked in. "If you can't get that right in terms of keeping students safe and secure," he put it bluntly, "I think you're going to struggle to unlock all that innovation, because we just don't know what's going to come over the next four or five years." They believe that building this safe, open environment is the only way to get schools on board with AI in a big way. Shantanu explained that AI's own unpredictable nature, what he called its 'jagged edge of the frontier where it's like, 'Really good at this,' and 'It's not good at this,' and it's hard to predict,' makes this trust thing even more vital. "I've never seen a technology that's been created with these types of characteristics," he admitted. One of the big worries with AI in schools is that it'll strip away the human touch. Will AI tutors take over from teachers? Will the art of teaching get boiled down to algorithms? Shantanu offered a firm no. "I think there is a critical role for the classroom experience," he stated. "And that's a big part of what we're sending our kids into school for, to interact with other kids. It's to get mentorship from a teacher, another human being, to really like build these critical skills around problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, being able to unleash their creativity." In a world that's always changing, he argued, these human skills are more important than ever, and the classroom is where they grow. Where AI will shake things up, Shantanu thinks, is in how we share and create content. "All of a sudden, with AI, you have the ability to take any content, transform it into any form factor in some way... You can take a PDF and create an audio podcast in any language. It blows your mind when I say it, but you have to play with it to really see how remarkable that is." This power, he believes, can free up teachers from some of the more repetitive parts of their job. "If a teacher was spending all this time giving worksheets and sitting there grading it... that's because that's what they had to do with the technology of the day," he reflected. If AI can handle things like making quizzes, grading them and giving students some initial help, "that's what's going to elevate the teacher to the next level." The aim, as he put it, is to "empower teachers to really save time on the tasks where they don't want to be spending time and elevate them to spend more time on those other areas." And that, he hopes, "is just going to push more people to ensuring that you're focusing on the human experiences in the classroom." This really hit home for me. From my experience in the classroom, the challenge wasn't a lack of information but fostering curiosity. "Trying to get students curious and motivated about learning was a very, very difficult challenge," I told them. "And I suppose that's what an AI chatbot can't do, really." Shantanu got the complexity. "Motivation is a huge part of what the teacher or what a real tutor really does," he agreed, even sharing a story about his son's piano lessons and how being accountable to a real person made all the difference. That human connection, with all its quirks and nuances, just can't be replaced. That fear of "cognitive laziness" is a real one. If AI can just spit out answers, will students ever learn to wrestle with tough problems themselves? "There's this 'illusion of learning'," Shantanu admitted, "where kids are like, 'Oh, I got the answer, and I think I understood that. So therefore, I learned it.' Like, no." He said it's the teacher's job to shift the focus from just getting the answer to understanding the how and why behind it. "Let's really review drafts. Let's have a conversation about why this was a good essay and this was a bad essay." He used the calculator analogy: "Calculators came out... I don't have to do long multiplication... And I actually never learned how to do square roots... And we didn't need to because at some point, the calculator does it for you." But, crucially, we still teach kids basic math. It's the same idea: you need those foundational skills, even as the tools change. Google's LearnLM model, Bryan jumped in, is built to tackle exactly this. "LearnLM is fundamentally driving more of a personal, engaging, curiosity-type model versus just, 'Here's the answer to something,'" he explained. "How does it guide you down a path over time?" The idea is to get students exploring and thinking for themselves, not just passively receiving information. And Shantanu actually sees AI as something that could spark curiosity. "I think AI can actually help you with it. It can help you think and brainstorm in new ways," he suggested, pointing out that chatbots can be great for brainstorming. By making it easier for anyone to create – to code an app or compose a piece of music with AI's help – it can break down barriers and ignite that creative fire. "When they're into something... you can bring it to life," he said, thinking about how AI can offer new ways to apply what you already know – which is really what creativity is all about. One of the things that excites me most about AI is its power to even the odds. "I really like the fact that AI now allows anybody, pretty much in any socioeconomic status, to do things that are beyond the capability of just one person," I mentioned. Shantanu was right there with me, especially when it came to language. "I go to a place like India where... people aren't good with English... typing things on a US English keyboard is really hard... The fact that now they can speak in their native language and write beautiful English text... Wow, that's amazing what that's enabled us to do now." This drive for equity is why Google's making tools like Gemini and Notebook free for schools everywhere. Bryan Lee didn't sugarcoat the challenges: "Often, what we find... is mainly just, we get hung up on policy and access... And then ultimately, you need some level of connectivity." But he made it clear Google is actively working on it, teaming up with groups like UNESCO to get these tools into more hands. "We are trying to establish further partnerships that can open this up." This also brings up the question of what's "real" work when AI is involved. If AI helps write something, who gets the credit? Both Bryan and Shantanu seemed to think we're all just getting used to a new normal. What really matters, we talked about, is that the idea and the message are genuinely yours, even if AI helped polish the delivery. At the end of the day, AI's success in schools comes down to the teachers. "It seems like the block on some of this might be the actual teacher," I suggested, thinking of schools I've seen that are wary of new tech. Bryan highlighted just how crucial teacher training is. "We're investing deeply into educator training," he stated. "That's really where you're going to see the immediate benefits, both in just making an educator more productive... but also hopefully with retention of teachers." But it's not just about teaching new buttons to click; it's about changing how teachers see AI. "A lot of people still have a view of it as just like a one-way chatbot," Bryan observed. "And so the fear... is like, 'Oh, students are going to use this to find answers.'" Google's plan is to build AI features right into the tools teachers already use, like Google Classroom, so it feels natural. "If we could show up there in a more meaningful way, it'll change the perception of what AI can do for them," he argued. Shantanu put it perfectly: "AI shouldn't be a new technology to learn; that's scary... It should be something that is so easy to integrate into what I'm doing and that is helpful." The planet matters, and the energy AI uses is a real concern for a lot of educators. I brought this up, and both VPs tackled it head-on, tying it into Google's wider green goals. They talked about big investments in making their data centers more efficient, using clean energy like solar and wind, and designing chips that use less power. Bryan also pointed out that ChromeOS devices are pretty energy-efficient themselves, and Google's pushing for longer device lifespans. 10 years of support now. Things like ChromeOS Flex, which lets schools bring old laptops back to life, are part of this too. "One of the best sustainability measures is just not buying new hardware," Bryan said. A down-to-earth point that schools struggling with budgets can appreciate. As a dad I had to ask: what should we be teaching them to get them ready for this AI-driven future? Shantanu's answer was spot on: "They need to have adaptability, they need to have core problem-solving skills, and they're going to need to have an ability to face the unknown... And then, have good values as individuals." He made a crucial point: as AI gives humans more power, "it's really important that we are really like teaching our kids how to be the shepherds of the good for AI." When I pushed them a bit on where this is all going, neither of them went for the doom-and-gloom. Shantanu mused, "Intelligence is an amazing thing... and that's what we're creating with AI... it can solve problems that we struggle with." Bryan used my own Waymo rides as a quick example of how fast we humans get used to new things. My initial slight caution about a driverless car? Gone by the second ride. "I think that's a good example of how quickly you went through that swing," he said. "I just think we're going to adapt really quickly." Walking away from that conversation, I felt like I'd gotten a glimpse into a company that's not just charging ahead with AI in education, but really thinking it through. This isn't about AI for AI's sake. It's about carefully fitting it into the way schools already work, building trust, giving teachers more power, and always remembering that human connection is what makes learning truly special. They get that it's a balancing act. Using AI for the quick wins now, while also nurturing its power to create genuinely new ways of teaching and learning. The road ahead is definitely complicated, and nobody has all the answers. But Google seems set on walking it with a mix of big ideas and a solid sense of responsibility, making sure that even as tech speeds ahead, our human values stay in the driver's seat.
