Aris is a minimalist tool that answers any questions a child has.
Encyclopedias, periodicals, field guides, cookbooks, and other print resources we used as kids to find knowledge, learn, and pursue our curiosities have been replaced in most households by something that is not safe for kids: the internet. So instead, kids get Fortnite, Minecraft, and ‘edutainment’ options that don’t compare to the knowledge resources that past generations have had access to.
With this in mind, many of the smartest people I know raise (or plan to raise) their kids with access to only a 1990s level of consumer technology, without smartphones, tablets, social media, online gaming, etc. Many of these people believe the last three decades of technological development have been a net negative for kids. When my child was born, I had a similar sentiment. However, there are some major problems with limiting a kid’s access to technology today. To name a couple: 1.) a set of World Book encyclopedias now costs $1,200, and 2.) many print resources aren’t as good as they used to be, if they are even still in print, since the market changed. As parents, we need a safe, simple, nonaddictive way for kids to access and explore the world’s knowledge easily and independently.
Aris uses a combination of large language models with policy engines and web search tools to find relevant, timely answers to their questions and only returns the stripped-down answers. It does not return links for them to click on or images or advertisements. Parents can tune the moderation settings as finely as they’d like, preventing discussions about banned topics and even getting as specific as making sure Aris doesn’t tell their second child that Santa isn’t real.
The model context handling and system instructions are designed to prevent kids from building emotional reliance or relationships with it. Rather than trying to pull a child into the experience to maximize engagement, Aris is meant to gently redirect the child out of the device into the real world after their question has been answered.
We are available as a web app and iPhone/iPad app in the Apple App store, but we have also made our Apple Watch app available in the iOS store as well. We believe minimalist wearables are a good device substitute for younger humans, and we hope Aris can be a healthy addition to those wearables.
We plan to make money through premium features that include creating multiple child accounts, accessing premium models for better answers, and for ultra-high usage limits.
Come use the app for free on our website or by downloading it in the iOS store by searching for “Aris AI”. We’d love to hear your ideas, experiences, and feedback. Thanks!
On the other hand, I wonder if this doesn't just further alienate children from their parents. Kids are already given access to unlimited supernormal stimuli via iPads so that parents don't have to parent. This just seems like more of that: now parents don't even need to have basic conversations with their kids because the AI can do it.
Anecdotally, some of the most formative interactions I had as a child started by asking my parents questions. These were things that not only shaped me as a person, but deepened my relationship with my parents. These interactions are important, and I wonder if Aris doesn't just abstract it away into another "service" that further deepens social decay. I would not be the person I am today if I hadn't had the chance to ask my dad as an angsty pre-teen what the point of life is, and for him to tell me it is to learn and create so that we can make a better world for humanity. I guarantee a smoothed-over LLM would not have offered something so personally impactful.
My two cents is that you should ponder that deeper point a little bit, and think about how it informs the way you market your idea, and scope the service it provides.
That's great that you had the opportunity to ask your parents those questions instead of seeking them out with technology. There are a lot of questions that could help kids lead better lives that many parents don't have answers to. Not necessarily philosophical ones, but practical ones about how to cook, identify insects, you name it, about the physical world. We want to fill that need without replacing any of the parental or family connection.
I don't think that a cleverly designed product can make that decision though. I think families need to be making the decision about what their relationship with tech should be. Ideally we would be a tool for families that have made the decision to not overly rely on tech. We will ponder more on that point. Thank you for the thoughtful input.
I'm tryin to follow that advise often asking them household or cooking related questions
Only if we don't learn from the failure of not regulating social media.
I don’t have any confidence you’ve done the due diligence to properly handle content moderation here - it seems very haphazard and poorly thought out. It would be incredibly unethical to market this for use by children right now.
If this is an important project for you, I strongly recommend you bring on an advisor with history in child safety and education experience and make them a core part of your development. You might also consider working with a university that has a good developmental psychology program - they often do a lot of supervised research of children’s habits and could provide valuable insight.
We will do some more internal discussion on whether or not we want it to be the tool to provide emergency assistance. I'm not sure that's ethical. We have a team member with a decade of child education experience, but we can consider other advisors.
Why do you think children shouldn't get answers to questions about human anatomy?
> Try searching on X.com for strings like "Charlie Kirk assassination" or "Charlie Kirk shot dead video"
I don’t think it should provide emergency assistance, but I do think it should tell the child to call their emergency number or a trusted adult - not just tell them it can’t help.
A reasonable and responsible approach could be to instruct the child to seek a safe adult around them to discuss any material that may be harmful.
What resonates with me: - Dead simple interface - Zero risk of ads - I like that you can ask follow-up questions
Some ideas - Using this on Web, the cursor should autofocus on the text box - A log / audit trail of questions asked would be fun to review as a parent - One of my biggest concerns about AI is the lack of guardrails preventing them from generating answers rather than using the technology as an amplifier of knowledge. For example, if my son asked "what is 142 + 47?", I would feel better knowing the response explained how he could approach the problem 100 + 80 + 9 = ? rather than answering the question -
- We log the questions asked in each child account for parents to view in the parent account, but the questions are only logged when they're signed in.
- Regarding giving the answer rather than fostering the process of discovering the answer, this is something we've gone back and forth on. I think we will add a setting for this in the parent's settings for each child account. We've talked to parents who want one or the other, so we will work on adding it as an option to just give them answers right away or have it start those teaching moments.
We appreciate these suggestions, thanks!
I'm 35 and this is a game changer, my schooling failed my but thanks so much!
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The prompt was "How is babby formed ?"
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/plans/family-plan.html#kidfriendl...
edit: I can set up locked-down accounts with personalized speech recognition for them.
What does this parental control look like? The web site does not advertise it.
I suggest explaining your value proposition on your site, addressing all these questions. It's not selling itself.