Google opens up AI-powered search experience to teenagers

Google is opening up its AI-powered search experience, also known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), to teenagers. This means that teenagers ages 13-17 in the United States who are signed into a Google Account will be able to sign up for Search Labs to access the AI search experience through the Google app or Chrome desktop.

SGE allows users to ask Google questions in a conversational manner, and it can generate responses that are more comprehensive and informative than traditional search results. For example, if you ask SGE "What is the best way to get to the airport?", it might generate a response that includes a summary of the different transportation options, as well as the estimated travel time and cost for each option.

Google says that it has designed guardrails to prevent inappropriate or harmful content from surfacing in SGE responses. For instance, the company has placed stronger protections for "outputs related to illegal or age-gated substances or bullying."

Google is also introducing a new feature to give users more context about the content that they see in SGE results. The company is adding an "About this result" notice to the AI search experience, which will explain how SGE generated the response and provide links to the web pages that back up the information.

Finally, Google is rolling out an update to help train the SGE AI model to better detect and respond to false or offensive queries. This is an important step, as Google wants to ensure that SGE is providing users with accurate and reliable information.

Overall, the expansion of SGE to teenagers and the introduction of new features to improve the user experience are positive developments. SGE has the potential to be a powerful tool for learning and exploring, and it is important to make it accessible to a wider range of users.