Google Expands Its AI-Powered 'Search Generative Experience' to Teens

pcmag.com:

Earlier this year, Google unveiled its Search Engine Experience (SGE), which turns traditional search results into a ChatGPT-style AI experience. Accessible via Search Labs, Google initially opened up limited access to adults 18 and over, but it's now expanding SGE to teens ages 13 to 17, alongside some new guardrails.

Google says it received positive feedback from young adults, in part because they are more likely to ask follow-up questions when interacting with the chatbot-like search results.

"Those aged 18-24 who currently have access to SGE [have] given us particularly positive feedback about how these capabilities make it possible to search for information in a more conversational, natural way, and ask follow-up questions," says Hema Budaraju, Senior Director of Product Management for Google Search.

That positive feedback, in turn, led to the new expansion. SGE remains in a "trial" form; you have to go out of your way to sign up and activate it. But now younger people can join.

Google says it updated SGE to protect teens, particularly around illegal or age-gated substances and bullying. The company also consulted experts in teen development as it designed those safeguards. When teens sign up for SGE, they'll get a link to a new literacy guide from Google explaining how generative AI works, along with its capabilities and limitations.

The expansion covers "SGE while Browsing" and incorporates an "About this result" feature, which "will give people helpful context, such as a description of how SGE generated the response, so they can understand more about the underlying technology," Budaraju says.

Of course, if SGE kills the very sites that feed it, all of this could be moot in the long run.

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