Google wants AI to be every student's private tutor – but it 'won't replace teachers'

Google is intensifying its push to use artificial intelligence to transform the way students learn and educators teach, with the UAE emerging as its one of its main partners in a global education initiative.

Ben Gomes, Google’s chief technologist for learning and sustainability who helped develop the company’s search engine, told The National that its mission to “organise the world’s information” naturally extended into education. He said he believed the sector could be reshaped by the tech company’s new AI tools, including Gemini and NotebookLM.

“We’ve been working in education for quite a while … most of our products are information-oriented,” Mr Gomes said during an interview in Dubai. “And one of the key uses of information is education and learning. Ninety per cent of people who visit YouTube say they’ve used it to learn something in the past month.”

With the launch of Gemini, Google’s AI model family, the company wants to recreate the experience of having a personal tutor.

Its latest version is Gemini 2.5 Pro, which works faster across text, images and videos. It was announced in October that university students in the UAE would get a free one-year subscription to the AI model through a partnership with the government.

The offer is available to all students aged 18 and over and includes access to NotebookLM, the company’s note-organising and research assistant.

Google also worked with the UAE’s Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications Office to launch the AI for All initiative, a training programme for all ages and professional backgrounds that will be introduced in 2026.

Mr Gomes said the UAE was a “very forward-looking country” and the partnership would help train the nation’s teachers.

“We want to make sure that teachers are trained people who are using AI in various fields,” he said. “One of the things we need to understand is how best to use AI in education to transform education and that's a partnership."

Mr Gomes said Google’s AI was helpful in classrooms because it trained the models to improve engagement and promote active learning. “Learning should feel like having a personal tutor,” he said. “The model should actually encourage you to ask questions, stay active and remain curious.”

One of Google’s new classroom features is an “Ask” button on YouTube, which allows students to type in questions directly about a video.

This would help turn passive watching into an educational experience, where students are encouraged to ask questions.

“The teacher-student relationship is fundamental. Our goal isn’t to replace it but to strengthen it with AI support,” Mr Gomes said. “Teachers can’t always cater to every individual student at the same time but AI can help personalise learning, helping reach both students who are struggling and those who are ahead.”

He referred to the company’s recent study in Ireland, in which teachers using AI saved an average of 10 hours a week. “They’ve been really happy with it because it frees up so much of their time,” he added. “One of the biggest things is to get people to first try using AI … then they understand the power."

He said Google’s approach to education technology included safety and ethics. The HP Futures Report - compiled by 100 education experts - this week called for a global AI charter to be introduced in schools and universities to ensure the safe and responsible use of the technology.

“We have a set of AI principles, but beyond that we do extensive red-teaming of our models,” he said. “When a model is created, it is tested by people to make sure it doesn’t have bad behaviour.”

Mr Gomes believes AI has the potential to change how subjects are taught. He said there were a lot of “mechanical things being taught in education that are not important any more because machines can do them”.

“Students should be able to spend more time on understanding concepts, on why things work, not just how,” he said. “The world is being changed by AI, and students need to learn critical thinking, flexibility and adaptability.”

He said this would only be possible if they partner with educators. “We are technologists. We need to work with educators who are interested in technology to push a vision forward of what education can look like for the future,” he added.

Mr Gomes worked on Google Search for 20 years and stayed with the company to improve education with the use of AI. “I think education is the fundamental thing that transforms who people are,” he said. “I stayed at Google to do it because our tools are about information, and information is what is often used for the purpose of education.”