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OpenAI, the maker of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, is rolling out an experience for teens that includes safety and learning features.
The global introduction of “ChatGPT for Teens” comes as OpenAI and other tech companies face lawsuits that allege AI chatbots are harming young people by providing information used to plan mass shootings and suicides.
As students turn to chatbots for schoolwork, teachers and parents also worry that teens will use the tools to cheat or avoid practicing critical thinking skills.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional or call 988. The nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Or text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
OpenAI said ChatGPT users who state their age is between 13 and 17 will automatically be placed into the teen experience. The San Francisco AI company also estimates if a user is under 18 and those minors will also be added to ChatGPT for Teens.
“Teens should be able to use AI to learn, create, and explore. But that access should come with protections that reflect their developmental stage, reinforce real-world relationships, and support healthy use over time,” OpenAI said in a blog post on Tuesday.
The learning features include quizzes, homework reminders, study mode and learning visualizations. Safety tools include reducing exposure to sensitive or potentially harmful content and limiting the amount of time teens spend on ChatGPT.
Tech companies are under more scrutiny to make their platforms safer. Parents, some of whom lost their children to suicide or accidental drug overdose, have sued companies for damages and urged politicians to pass new child safety laws.
Meta, which has an AI assistant within a standalone app and across its platforms, including Instagram, is headed to trial on Tuesday over allegations that its products harmed young people and that it misled the public about the dangers of social media. Meta-owned Instagram also has accounts with more restrictions for teens.
Meta lost a social media addiction case in Los Angeles and another child safety case in New Mexico this year. A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $942 million and take steps to make the platform safer, including preventing minors from engaging in romantic or sexualized interactions with its AI chatbots.
OpenAI has been grappling with legal hurdles too. Last year, the parents of a California teen who died by suicide sued OpenAI over allegations that ChatGPT provided information about ways to kill himself. OpenAI has said it directs people to suicide prevention resources and denied it caused the teen’s death. The company also rolled out new parental controls.
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OpenAI is the latest tech company to face a lawsuit alleging chatbots are providing teens with self-harm content.
In June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, for failing to warn the public about ChatGPT’s dangers. The lawsuit alleged that OpenAI designed and maintained a “dangerous online product where harmful information such as tips on eating disorders, self-harm, and mass murder are readily available, including to young children.”
Safety concerns have also raised questions about what roles parents and teachers should play as more teens use AI chatbots. Roughly 70% of teens say their teachers haven’t talked to them about how to use AI safely, according to a survey of U.S. teens age 13 to 17 conducted by the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media.
The group, which published the survey Tuesday, said it’s releasing a new “Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum” that’s free for teachers, schools and districts. It explores topics such as why using someone’s likeness to create AI-generated images without their consent is harmful.
Roughly 42% of U.S. parents of teens ages 13 to 17 say they haven’t talked to their kids about chatbots, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center in February.
Roughly 1 billion people use ChatGPT every week. U.S. teens use chatbots to find information, get help on schoolwork for entertainment and other reasons, according to the Pew Research Center.
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Queenie Wong is a technology reporter for the Los Angeles Times. At CNET and the Mercury News, she wrote about the world’s largest social networks. Wong also covered politics and education for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore. Growing up in Southern California, she started reading The Times as a kid and took her first journalism class in middle school. She graduated from Washington and Lee University, where she studied journalism and studio art.
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