Funding grants for new research into 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. They 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.

We want 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. For example, we aim to deepen industry-wide understanding of the nuances across age and context, efficacy of safeguards and interventions, and the ways that evidence can inform implementation and evaluation. 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.

What we’re funding

We welcome proposals 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 in teens’ lives

- Technical interventions, safeguards, and design choices that can increase benefits or keep teens safer

- How effects may differ across ages, developmental stages, populations, cultures, languages, and socioeconomic contexts

We welcome interdisciplinary research involving fields such as child and adolescent development, psychology, public health, human-computer interaction, communication, sociology, anthropology, data science, and AI safety. We encourage proposals from any country, and will prioritize those from countries with significant AI adoption.

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

We encourage submissions that relate to one or more of the following topics:

- Emotional development and well-being: Research on emotion regulation, resilience, identity, agency, self-esteem, and social connection.

- Social development and relationships: Research on friendships, family relationships, belonging, communication, empathy, social skills, and the relationship between AI and human connection.

- Patterns, contexts, and variance across demographics: Research on how outcomes vary by time spent, type and purpose of use, age, culture, language, socioeconomic circumstances, and other individual or contextual factors.

- Mitigations, age-appropriate design, and policy approaches: Research evaluating safeguards, product interventions, AI literacy, parental or educator support, and healthy-use practices.

Research involving minors

Research involving minors requires particular attention to informed consent and assent, privacy, safeguarding, data security, and the possibility that participation may expose or generate sensitive information.

Applicants proposing research involving minors must explain:

- The relevant institutional or independent ethics-review process

- How informed consent and age-appropriate assent will be handled

- How participants’ privacy and data will be protected