In an effort to protect younger users, ChatGPT will now predict your age

With growing concerns about the impact of AI on young people, OpenAI has introduced an “age prediction” feature in ChatGPT which is designed to help identify minors and set reasonable content restrictions on their conversations.

OpenAI has come under heavy criticism in recent years for the effects ChatGPT can have on children. A number of teen suicides have been linked to the chatbot, and like other AI vendors, OpenAI has also been criticized for allowing ChatGPT to discuss sexual topics with young users. Last April, the company had to address a bug that allowed its chatbot to generate sexual messages for users under the age of 18.

The company has already been working on the underage user issue for some time, and the new “age prediction” feature only adds to the protections already in place. The new feature leverages an artificial intelligence algorithm that evaluates user accounts for certain “behavioral and account-level signals,” in an effort to identify young users, OpenAI said in a blog post on Tuesday.

These “signals” include things like a user’s stated age, how long the account has been in existence, and times of day when the account is typically active, the company said. The company already has content filters designed to filter out discussions of sex, violence, and other topics that might cause problems for users under 18. If the age prediction mechanism identifies an account as under 18, these filters will be applied automatically.

If a user is mistakenly classified as a minor, there is a way for them to recreate their “adult” account. OpenAI says they can send a selfie to OpenAI’s identity verification partner, Persona.