Google responded on Tuesday to the political backlash over its new policy regarding the use of artificial intelligence in schools.

Google stated in a blog post titled "Responsible AI for Learning" that it is introducing AI into its Classroom products through a product called Guided Learning. Subsequently, The New York Times reported that for schools that completely reject AI, Google will disable the search function.

After the report was published in The New York Times, several well-known left-leaning political figures expressed their anger on social media, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor De Blasio Mamdani.

Mamdani wrote on X: “Google is trying to use its monopoly power to force AI into our public schools.” Sanders, on the other hand, wrote that Google is ‘threatening schools’ and called this policy ‘extortion.’

Google responded later that same day. In a post on X, the company stated that the new policy aims to give schools more options regarding how students interact with AI. Google mentioned that its Gemini chatbot, Gemini Notebook, and search functions are all disabled by default, and that "schools have control" over whether to enable these features according to their own needs.

Google writes, "We are also updating the school version of Search to make it more suitable for learning." "Specifically, AI Mode and AI Overviews will guide learning step by step through questions, so that students won't get quick answers directly while doing their homework."

However, this Google post did not explicitly respond to the claim that "using the search function necessarily requires enabling AI." Nevertheless, Chris Phillips, Vice President of Google's Education Business, told The New York Times, "Search and AI are deeply integrated."

When asked for a comment, a Google spokesperson provided the aforementioned X post to CNBC as a response.

In recent years, Google's broader business practices have also continued to come under criticism, and the company has lost lawsuits in antitrust cases related to its search and advertising businesses. Lena Khan, former chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, actively promoted law enforcement actions against tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Amazon.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Han stated that Google's new AI policy highlights the "dangers of allowing an unregulated monopoly to control a key service."

This is the latest controversy surrounding the impact of technology on children and the role played by large internet companies in information dissemination.

In August of this year, after several state attorneys general accused Meta of downplaying the harm that applications such as Facebook and Instagram caused to children's mental health, Meta reached a landmark settlement of $16.7 billion in its child safety trial.

In the same month, after several state attorneys general launched investigations into the security practices of OpenAI, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for teenagers. The Republican attorney general of Florida, James Uthmeier, filed a lawsuit in June.

The non-profit organization Common Sense Media recently rated Google’s AI Overviews as “unacceptable risk.” Last month, U.S. federal senators Richard Blumenthal (Democrat from Connecticut) and Josh Hawley (Republican from Missouri) initiated an investigation into Google’s promotion of AI in classrooms.

Google will launch AI Overviews as a search feature in May 2024.

—— CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos has also contributed to this article.