OpenAI has launched a version of ChatGPT exclusively designed for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 on Tuesday, saying this version came with stronger protections around content related to mentions of suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It’s been said that this version also provides help for students to learn with homework and study support. A tech expert says ChatGPT for Teens is “incorporated” into the regular version of ChatGPT, but they call it a “new mode.” “If it thinks that you’re a kid, it will offer up a different experience. It will put in more restrictions. It will prevent you from seeing content or being exposed to content that revolves around self-harm or violence or graphic or sexual content…” Carmi Levy, a tech analyst told CTV Your Morning Thursday. “What it’s doing is it’s using cues, it’s sort of watching how you’re using the tool, and it’s trying to guess your age.” Levy said if ChatGPT thinks a person has lied about their age when they first signed up, it will automatically put them into the Teens mode for protection. “It includes those sort of two things: prevent you from having experiences that are age inappropriate, and also add features that are aligned with academics, so that makes it easier to study, makes it less likely for you to cheat on an assignment, provide resources that that that allow you to learn more effectively,” he said. Levy reminded users that this is still an application and a web service, which means it’s constantly collecting personal information about the users’ activities on the device and using the data to estimate their age. “It’s known as age verification or age gauging. We’ve seen it used on social media apps,” he said. “It’s really trying to answer the question: ‘well, they told me how old they were. Did they lie about it? Because if they did, we’re going to make sure they have a more restricted experience.’” In the event a user is talking about self-harm, this new version will block the conversation and suggest additional help or call emergency or mental health services, Levy explained. It would do the same with violent content, eating disorders, engaging in dangerous activities, as well as explicit, sexual or graphic content. “It’s using AI again to sort of parse out that conversation: ‘are we headed in a in a significant direction? If so, throw up that guardrail, stop it from happening, redirect.’” However, the tech analyst said a number of people who have attempted to bypass the guiderails for research have succeeded in doing so “with a little bit of prompting.” “Change a couple of your answers, and next thing you know, you’ve managed to supersede those limitations,” Levy said. “I wouldn’t call it 100 per cent safe. That’s kind of the catch-22 of the entire AI industry.” This will lead parents to think that their children are safer and reduce the oversight on their online activities, which Levy described as a “perverse impact” that is “problematic.” “Parents should not assume that OpenAI has their kids’ best interests at heart. They should also not assume that these technologies are perfect. They will miss certain things, and they will also engage in what we call false positives,” he said. “An adult who’s legitimately is in the platform might be tagged as a child because the AI simply got it wrong. Parents still need to keep their guard up.” If you or someone you know is in crisis, here are some resources that are available.
