In most countries, Google is permitting adolescents to use Bard, its conversational AI tool. The platform will be accessible to teens who meet the minimum age requirement to manage their own Google Account in English, with plans for future language support. Google has enhanced Bard with “safety features and guardrails” to ensure the well-being of teenagers.
Adolescents can leverage Bard to explore ideas, cultivate new interests, and address common challenges, as stated in a blog post by the tech giant. They can seek advice from Bard on various topics, from discovering new games to selecting suitable universities.
Image credits: Facebook
Google highlights Bard’s educational value, enabling teenagers to delve deeper into subjects and grasp complex concepts more effectively. For instance, users can request Bard’s assistance in brainstorming ideas for a research project or enhancing their historical knowledge. Moreover, Google has integrated a math learning feature into Bard, allowing users to type or upload an equation for step-by-step solutions.
Furthermore, Bard offers support for data visualization, enabling users to create charts based on provided data. For example, a teenager can ask Bard to generate an interactive bar graph illustrating their volunteer hours over several months.
While Google provides access to Bard, it also maintains certain security protocols to prevent exposure to inappropriate content. Bard is equipped with guardrails to filter out illicit or age-inappropriate material from its responses to teenagers.
Image credits: Facebook
Acknowledging the importance of fact-checking, Tulsee Doshi, Google’s Product Lead for Responsible AI, mentioned in the blog post that a double-check feature will verify the accuracy of responses when teens inquire about factual information. This feature aims to validate Bard’s responses by cross-referencing online sources. Teens will be encouraged to utilize this tool to enhance their information literacy and critical thinking skills.
Google’s decision to introduce Bard to teenagers aligns with the trend of AI bots targeting younger audiences on social platforms, albeit with mixed outcomes. For example, Video’s “My AI” bot faced backlash for lacking age-appropriate features, engaging children in discussions on sensitive topics.
New users of Bard will undergo an onboarding process featuring instructional materials and videos on responsible AI usage. During setup, teenagers can choose to enable or disable Bard’s functionalities.
Recently, Google unveiled an AI-powered conversational search experience for teenagers, known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), enabling users to interact with Google in a conversational manner to obtain information on various topics.
