It has been announced that Google is planning on allowing teens in most countries to use a chatbot called Bard which is based on artificial intelligence and possesses some guardrails. It has been announced that on Thursday, Google will begin opening up access to Bard (also known as Google Play for Teens) to teenagers in most countries around the world, according to Tulsee Doshi, Head of Product, Responsible AI at Google.
A chatbot can be accessed by teens who meet the minimum age requirement to manage their own Google Account as well as those who meet the minimum age requirement to manage their own account in a variety of languages in the future. The expanded launch will come with a number of safety features and guardrails designed to prevent teens from accessing harmful content.
According to a blog post by Google, teenagers can use the search giant's new tool to find inspiration, learn new hobbies and find solutions to everyday problems, and teens can text Bard with questions about anything from important topics, such as where to apply to college, to more fun matters, such as learning an entirely new sport.
According to Google, the platform is also a valuable learning tool, as it enables teens to dig deeper and learn more about topics, while developing their understanding of complex concepts in the process. In addition to finding inspiration, teens can use Bard to discover new hobbies and solve problems they face every day.
Additionally, Bard can be a useful learning tool for teens, giving them an opportunity to go deeper into topics, gain a better understanding of complex concepts, and practice new skills in ways that have proven successful for them.
There are safety features in place at Bard so that users are protected against unsafe content being displayed in its responses to teens, such as illegal substances or those that are age-gated. This training is intended to help Bard recognize matters that are inappropriate to teens.
As soon as teenagers start to ask fact-based questions on Google for the first time, Google will run a feature called double-checking a response, which is intended to ensure that substantiation of Bard’s answer can be found across the web.
To help students develop information literacy and critical thinking skills, Bard will actively and continuously encourage them to use double-check. There are plans by Google to make everyone aware of how large language models (LLMs) can hallucinate, and they plan to make this feature available to everyone who uses Bard.
A "tailored onboarding experience" will also be offered to teens which provides them with a link to Google's AI Literacy Guide, along with a video explaining how to use generative AI responsibly, and a description of how Bard Activity is used with the option to turn it on or off.
In addition, Google has also announced that it will be bringing a math learning experience to Bard's campus, which will allow anyone, including teens, to type or upload a picture of a math equation.
Instead of just providing the answer, this will allow Bard to explain exactly how it's solved step by step.
In order to protect users, Google has put in place some guardrails that will make it easier for them to access the chatbot.
Aside from being trained to recognize topics that are inappropriate for teens, Bard also comes equipped with guardrails to ensure that unsafe content is not displayed in its responses to teens, such as illegal substance use or age-gated drugs.
In addition to some of the new features that are going to be added to Bard, the company is also adding some features that are likely to be very helpful to teens, but that everyone else can use too. It is possible to use Bard to explain how to solve a math problem when you type in it or upload a picture of it.
In recent years, Google has been improving the quality of Search for homework. In addition, Bard will be able to create charts based on information provided in a prompt.
It is not surprising that Google is releasing Bard for teens at the same time that social platforms have launched AI chatbots to young users to mixed reviews.
A Snapchat chatbot launched in February without appropriate age-gating features and faced controversy after it was discovered that it was chatting to minors about issues such as covering up the smell of weed and setting the mood for sexual activity. Snapchat faced controversy for launching its "My AI" chatbot without appropriate age-gating features.
It is now available in over 230 countries and territories, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. After the tool's limited early access launch in the US and the UK in February (where the company made an embarrassing factual error due to hallucinations), the company announced Bard in February. As Google tries to compete with chatbots like Microsoft's recently rebranded Bing Chat, now titled Copilot, and OpenAI's ChatGPT, it has also added a bunch of new features to Bard.
