OpenAI Commits $5 Million to Independent Research on AI and Teen Development

OpenAI is committing $5 million to support independent research on how generative AI affects the lives and development of young people ages 13-17. Generative AI is becoming part of how teens learn, create, and seek advice. Its effects are likely to be nuanced and may depend on what teens use AI for, how they engage with it, their individual circumstances, and the support available from families, schools, communities, and technology providers. The company wants to build a stronger evidence base about the way teens use AI, as well as the impacts of AI on their lives, to inform development of AI products for teens and to help answer major questions facing policymakers and regulators. This program will fund independent research into the opportunities and challenges associated with AI use during adolescence, with a particular focus on teens' social and emotional development. Proposals are welcome that can deepen understanding and generate evidence relevant to current and emerging discourse, including how teens use generative AI and how different patterns of use relate to developmental outcomes, potential impacts of AI use in teens' lives, the individual, social, cultural, and technical factors that shape the effects of AI, technical interventions, safeguards, and design choices that can increase benefits or keep teens safer, and how effects may differ across ages, developmental stages, populations, cultures, languages, and socioeconomic contexts. Interdisciplinary research is welcome involving fields such as child and adolescent development, psychology, public health, human-computer interaction, communication, sociology, anthropology, data science, and AI safety. Proposals from any country are encouraged, and those from countries with significant AI adoption will be prioritized. Qualitative, quantitative, experimental, observational, theoretical, participatory, and mixed-methods approaches are all eligible. Research involving teens in the design or interpretation of studies is welcome but not required. Research priorities include emotional development and well-being, covering emotion regulation, resilience, identity, agency, self-esteem, and social connection; social development and relationships, covering friendships, family relationships, belonging, communication, empathy, social skills, and the relationship between AI and human connection; patterns, contexts, and variance across demographics; and mitigations, age-appropriate design, and policy approaches.