I spend a lot of time thinking about how my kids will interact with technology in the future.

Luckily, exactly one year ago, I met Shiva Jaini, an expert on human-computer interaction.

Shiva co-founded YouTube Kids (ever heard of it 👀) , developed an AI cooking assistant at Google, and is now building an AI companion called Curie to foster kids’ curiosity and creativity. Most importantly, however, Shiva is Papa to his two children 😊 

Today, we'll learn about Shiva's journey from his work creating YouTube Kids to founding Curie, an AI companion app for children. We'll explore his unique perspective as both a technologist shaping digital experiences for kids and a father navigating the AI age.

🌳 A lil’ note: You can choose to ▶️ watch, 🎧️ listen, or 📧 read this interview!

Today, you’ll discover

• How YouTube Kids was born and the challenges of creating safe digital spaces

• What inspired Shiva to build Curie and his vision for AI companions

• His approach to evaluating technology for his own children

• His essential technologies for home and work

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Fresh Perspectives

Insights from fellow technologists and parents on AI and their areas of expertise

Building Safe AI Experiences for Kids with Shiva Jaini

Meet Curie

Before we get to know Shiva and dig deeper into Shiva’s journey and insights on technology for children, let me tell you a bit about what he’s currently building: Curie.

Curie by Curiosity Labs is an AI companion designed to make learning fun and engaging for kids. It offers personalized support for homework, interactive explanations of complex topics, and cool interactive story-generation experiences.

My favorite part? Watching my child interact with ‘Bouncy’, a cute pink bunny, to generate a story via voice-only. No tapping, typing, or swiping needed!

Get to know Shiva

Ruqaiya: How would you fill in this blank to describe your relationship with AI? __________.ai

Shiva: "Exploring potential." With my background in human-computer interaction, I always think about how we can channel technology to improve people's lives.

Ruqaiya: Could you share your background and what you're passionate about?

Shiva: My background is in design and human-computer interaction. For the past 16 years, I've worked in the technology sector, focusing on understanding the people we are building for and identifying their needs and challenges.

At YouTube, I helped create a special app for kids called YouTube Kids. It's a safe and fun playground where children could explore videos independently and give peace of mind for millions of parents around the world.

At Google, I worked on exciting projects like a virtual sous chef called Ratatouille to help people cook meals. With Google Maps, we built tools to help companies like Uber and Lyft move people and goods from one place to another.

Now I have started my own company to build Curie, a smart buddy or friend for kids that empowers them to learn, create, and safely explore their interests.

Creating Safe Digital Spaces: The YouTube Kids Story

Ruqaiya: How did the idea for YouTube Kids come about?

Shiva: We noticed a huge influx of kid-friendly content on YouTube, but the platform wasn't designed with children's safety in mind. The first challenge was convincing leadership to build a standalone product instead of just adding features to YouTube.

I thought of YouTube as this big, bustling city, and our challenge was to design a safe, child-friendly park where kids could explore freely. We stripped down the features to the essentials - removing things like view counts and comments that kids don't need and could be unsafe.

The tricky part was balancing two different users - we needed robust controls for parents while keeping it simple and delightful for kids.

Ruqaiya: You use the word "delightful" - what does that mean in designing for children?

Shiva: Our goal was to make kids smile every time they open the app. That drove everything from our motion design to sound effects - creating moments of joy and wonder. We carry that same philosophy now with Curie.

Building Curie: An AI Companion for Kids

Ruqaiya: What sparked the idea for Curie? What is a child experiencing when they open this app that you're calling an AI companion or AI friend for kids?

Shiva: While building YouTube Kids, I interacted with hundreds of families. In most conversations, one common theme of feedback was that while YouTube Kids gave them peace of mind, they had concerns around screen time quality and how kids got into this completely disengaged "zombie mode" when watching passively for long periods.

I saw kids throw tantrums when screen time was turned off, and I was seeing this firsthand with my own kids. Given that I was contributing to this problem, I wanted to come up with a solution that transforms how screen time is spent.

As a parent, I realize eliminating screen time completely is really hard, but we could aim to transform how it's spent. Curie was born to give kids a companion that not only entertains them but also inspires them, teaches them, and builds skills that are important for the future.

At the rate technology is advancing, the key skills I believe that are important for kids are curiosity, creativity, and ability to communicate effectively with others. My kids go to public school, and schooling hasn't really adapted to these changing needs. So at least as a supplemental tool, I wanted to create something that not only transforms screen time but also helps spark curiosity and creativity.

Safety First: Designing AI for Kids

Ruqaiya: How are you ensuring that your app is safe, especially as part of the core experience is getting the child's name and personal details to provide that personalized experience?

Shiva: For us, safety means a few things. First is robust filtering and limiting the scope of interactions to age-appropriate activities. We have a safety blacklist of sorts on top of the safety precautions that are baked into the LLMs, the foundational models that are powering underneath.

When it comes to content that we stitch together on the fly, we provide a way for parents to report if there are quality issues or something that doesn't feel right. We take that reported feedback and use that to fine-tune the models so that there is continuous improvement.

It's about ensuring the app supports curiosity while steering clear of misinformation, inappropriate topics, and even borderline unsafe interactions. These systems are not 100% fail-proof, so it's about setting the right expectations and having the right controls in place so that we can mitigate any issues and continuously improve the experience.

A Father's Perspective on Technology

Ruqaiya: How do you evaluate tech for your own kids? Can we get an inside scoop on your methodology?

Shiva: Growing up as a kid, none of this was there - all the tablets and smartphones. This generation definitely has an abundance of tools. It's about finding the right ones that can really benefit kids.

I look at tech that aligns with our values - is it educational, engaging, is it safe? With my older daughter, now that she knows what she's interested in exploring, we find apps that support those interests. Recently we downloaded chess.com when she wanted to learn chess, and Simply Piano when she started learning piano.

The good thing is most software products these days let you try them for free, so you can see the benefits and then decide whether to continue. The switching cost is so low, which is why building compelling consumer products is really challenging - the bar is very high.

Ruqaiya: What should be the questions that parents ask in this next phase, as we're evaluating artificial intelligence technologies for our households?

Shiva: Being cautious and intentional is really good. Does this product have a point of view on how it is channeling AI to benefit the child? Or is it just more for the sake of engagement?

While regulation and oversight are still developing, it's important to look for products that are being built in a responsible manner. Often the product itself reflects where the priority is or what it is optimizing for.

I personally believe strongly that AI is here to stay - it's going to be a daily part of our lives. So it's important to learn how to channel it and empower not just kids, but ourselves in the best way we can.

What's in Shiva's Tech Stack? 🪴

Apple or Android?
iPhone

Mac or PC?
Mac

Essential Tools

• ChatGPT and Perplexity for research

• Granola for meeting notes

• V0 for design prototyping

Tech Recommendation for Parents: An automatic can opener! "You just place it on aluminum cans, and it does a circle, and the top comes up so easily. It's been a game-changer for our kitchen."

Many thanks to Shiva for sharing his invaluable insights and helping us grow.

🍃 Connect with Shiva on LinkedIn and check out Curie to help foster your child’s curiosity!

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