Google is enabling Gemini access to teens in their Workspace for Education accounts
Google is expanding Gemini access to younger education users with enhanced safety features, while also introducing new AI-powered tools like Learning Coach, Read Along, and LearnLM-powered features to support personalized learning experiences and assist educators in content creation and management.
Google recently announced AI features that supplement the availability of Gemini for Google Workspace for education users over 18 years old. In May, Google announced it would offer Gemini for Google Workspace as a paid add-on to existing Workspace for Education accounts, with a lower-cost option called Gemini Education, and an add-on featuring additional generative AI capabilities called Gemini Education Premium. In that announcement, Google stated that users of the education-focused service would enjoy additional data protection features, such as their data excluded from training, and a double-check feature to ease the fact-checking process on Gemini's statements.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the new announcement is that Google is lowering the age restriction to start offering Gemini to Google Workspace for Education account users that satisfy the minimum age requirements to use Gemini in over 100 countries. The service will be free of charge for all educational institutions and turned off by default to empower administrators to decide if and when they want to activate the service in the Admin console. This particular version of Gemini, thought for younger users, has some additional features to make it an especially responsible and useful experience:
- Additional guardrails and policies in place keep illegal and age-inappropriate responses from surfacing.
- Automatic double-checking for fact-based queries
- An onboarding experience including an AI Literacy video endorsed by ConnectSafely and Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI).
- A custom Gemini version called Learning Coach (upcoming), powered by LearnLM and meant to provide step-by-step tutoring enhanced with quizzes and games.
- OpenStax and Data Commons extensions to aid students in finding information from trustworthy, education-geared resources.
- Additional training and resources for students parents and teachers.
In addition to Gemini access, Google announced the availability of Google Vids without generative AI features for students and educators with Google Workspace for Education Plus; the generative AI features version will be available as part of a Gemini Education add-on. Read Along in Google Classroom supports students with real-time support on their reading skills Educators can assign activities based on available books and then obtain insights on individual students' skills, with a pilot program testing the feasibility of creating personalized stories to meet students' needs. Read Along will be available in English worldwide, but limited support will be available for other languages, starting with Spanish.
Additional features include LearnLM-powered features for educators, including the ability to filter students into separate groups to offer content tailored to their specific needs, improved creation, sharing, and management of interactive lessons and practice sets, including support for Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and Urdu; AI-suggested questions to attach to YouTube lessons for English language users; and more fine-grained grading controls.
