Bard for teens: Google’s generative AI with safety features

Google has announced that it is expanding the access of its generative AI, Bard for teens around the world. Bard is a powerful tool that can generate text, images, charts, and more based on user prompts. Bard was first introduced in September 2021 as part of the Search Generative Experience (SGE), a limited experiment that allowed users to interact with Bard through Google Search.

Now, Google is making Bard available to those who are old enough to have their own Google Account and have their language set to English. Google plans to add more languages in the future. Bard for Teens is designed to be a fun and helpful way for young users to find inspiration, discover new hobbies, and solve everyday problems.

Safety and accuracy in Bard for teens

Bard is a large language model (LLM) that has been trained on a vast amount of data from the web. However, not all data is appropriate or accurate for younger users. That’s why Google has implemented several safety features and guardrails to prevent unsafe content from appearing in Bard’s responses.

Bard has been trained to recognize areas that are inappropriate for younger users, such as illegal or age-gated substances, and avoid generating such content. Google has also consulted with child safety and development experts, like the Family Online Safety Institute, to help shape its content policies and an experience that prioritizes safety.

Additionally, Google has introduced a double-check response feature that helps users evaluate whether there is content across the web to substantiate Bard’s response. This feature is especially useful when users ask fact-based questions, such as “Who is the president of France?” or “How many planets are there in the solar system?” To help users develop information literacy and critical thinking skills, Bard for Teens will actively and continuously recommend that they use double-check.

The double-check response feature is also intended to raise awareness of how LLMs can hallucinate, or generate false or misleading information that is not supported by evidence. Google plans to bring this feature to all new Bard users, regardless of their age.

How Bard helps teens with learning, hobbies, and problem-solving

Bard for teens is not only a safe and accurate tool, but also a fun and helpful one. Bard for teens helps with learning, hobbies, and problem-solving in various ways.

For example, Bard can:

• Provide writing tips for a class president speech, a college application essay, or a creative story.
• Suggest what universities to apply to, what courses to take, or what scholarships to look for.
• Explain complex concepts in a conversational way, such as algebra, chemistry, or history.
• Generate charts from tables or data mentioned in a prompt, such as a bar chart showing how many hours a teen volunteered across a few months.
• Enter or upload a math equation to get step-by-step explanations (similar to Lens) and the answer.
• Learn a new sport like pickleball, a new musical instrument like the ukulele, or a new craft like knitting.

To help get started with Bard for teens, Google has created a tailored onboarding experience that links to Google’s AI Literacy Guide, a video with tips on how to use generative AI responsibly, and an overview of how Bard Activity is used with the option to turn on/off.

Bard for teens is a new and exciting way for young users to explore the possibilities of generative AI. Google hopes that Bard will inspire teens to learn new things, pursue their passions, and express their creativity.

What is the Search Generative Experience?

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is a new way to search that uses generative AI. It enables users to receive AI-powered overviews and ask follow-up questions directly from Search. SGE is a beta version of Google’s search engine that employs artificial intelligence to provide contextual responses to complex questions. SGE employs generative AI in three ways to improve the search experience:

• AI snapshot: Creates a one-of-a-kind summary for some longer queries, with factors to consider and links to further exploration.
• Conversational mode: Allows users to delve deeper into a topic in an organic manner, with context carried over from question to question.
• Web content and perspectives: Provides useful starting points for web content as well as a variety of perspectives that users can adopt.

SGE is currently only available in the United States (English), and users can opt-in through Search Labs, a new way to access early Search experiments. SGE is based on Google’s most recent generative AI advancements, such as Bard, a powerful tool that can generate text, images, charts, and more based on user input.

SGE is intended to help users find and understand information more quickly and easily, particularly for topics that are new, unfamiliar, or complex. SGE is also intended to aid users in their shopping, learning, hobbies, and problem-solving activities.