OpenAI committed $2 million earlier this week to support a global scientific research network studying artificial intelligence’s effects on children and ways to protect them, the company said on Nov. 12.
The AI company announced the commitment in “Supporting research on AI and children’s safety,” alongside its signing of a charter at the Paris Peace Forum. The announcement described funding for research, without presenting completed studies or findings.
The money will support the scientific research network under the Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of AI. OpenAI signed the Charter of Engagement for Safer AI for Children at the forum.
OpenAI said its contribution would support the development of tools that researchers can use to measure AI’s risks and opportunities for children. The work is intended to help researchers build shared ways to assess those effects.
The company said that evidence would help inform safer products and better policy. It framed the research as a way to support AI’s benefits for young people while addressing risks to their safety and development.
The charter combines shared principles for safe, age-appropriate AI with a research programme and protections for its independence, OpenAI said. Participating research teams retain control over the conclusions they reach.
Findings will be published even when results are negative or inconclusive, the company said. That commitment covers results that do not establish a clear conclusion, as well as those that identify problems.
OpenAI did not give a research timetable, identify a study population or specify a period of data collection in the announcement. It also did not name individual research teams or describe how the funding would be divided.
The company linked the commitment to its earlier call for global standards on youth AI safety. It said governments, researchers, civil society and industry should work together to turn shared evidence into practical protections.
OpenAI also reiterated its support for comprehensive legislation on youth AI safety. The company said such laws should establish strong protections that can be enforced while preserving access to tools for learning, creativity and opportunity.
Those laws should require age-appropriate protections by default, tools for parents, regular assessments of risks and measures to reduce them, OpenAI said. The company also called for meaningful accountability within those legal frameworks.
OpenAI said it planned to engage with European policymakers as the EU Kids Act develops and with partners elsewhere. It described that engagement as part of its effort to advance protections and opportunities for young people.
