Shaping the Future of AI

At Gen, AI is central to our mission to build a safer digital world. It helps to deliver smarter, faster protection for millions of people worldwide. We’re also using our AI expertise to help people understand, navigate, and benefit from the power of AI, specifically young people in communities around the world.

From classrooms to community events, Gen is helping to shape a more informed and empowered future, powered by AI. 

Driving Conversations on AI and Digital Citizenship

This fall, Gen co-sponsored Shaping the Future: AI Education and Workforce Development, an event in Washington, D.C., exploring how educators and companies can prepare students for an AI-driven world. Along with Discovery Education and IBM, I shared how Gen integrates AI responsibly across our products and operations and how we’re investing in education to help families, teachers, and young people use AI safely and confidently.

I also joined Discovery Education’s Empowering Digital Citizens: A Classroom Initiative for Responsible Online Engagement webinar, which is part of its Digital Citizenship Initiative. This event for teachers highlighted how AI intersects with online safety, media literacy and digital responsibility. 

Iskandar Sanchez-Rola, one of Gen’s AI experts, connected directly with educators in another Discovery Education session, answering their questions about how AI works and what it means for their future. Representatives also joined the webinar from the organization #HalfTheStory, the leading youth nonprofit advancing digital wellness through play-based, youth-led, evidence-informed programs. Harveer Saini, who works on the group’s Digital Civics Academy, shared accounts from teenagers about the various ways AI and other technologies are shaping their daily lives, elevating the voices of those young people who often encounter the immediate effects of the technology revolution. 

The virtual event, part of Discovery Education’s first-ever Futures Fair, reached more than 600 students across 20 classrooms, and the Futures Fair garnered a total audience of more than 13,000 students through both virtual and in-person events. 

Expanding AI Education Through Global Partnerships

Together with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), we’ve brought digital safety education to young people in more than 100 countries. Our flagship Surf Smart 2.0 program is a badge-earning course that helps empower girls and young women with digital safety skills. This program was recently updated to include content on understanding AI and using it responsibly. 

Participants now explore where AI shows up in their online lives—from lifestyle recommendations to chatbots and voice assistants. They discuss how AI shapes what they see, how to think critically about information on their screens and how to spot misinformation. The curriculum also looks at appearance pressure and digital wellbeing, encouraging participants to reflect on how edited images and algorithms make them feel, how to set boundaries with their devices and how to protect their wellbeing while staying connected.

Our partnership with Discovery Education also continues to grow with new AI-focused content launching soon as part of the My Digital Life series. This digital literacy program, created in collaboration with Norton and the National Afterschool Association, gives students practical insights about online safety and media literacy.

The new animated series introduces Artie Fischal, a fictional character who helps students explore how AI can generate text, images and audio. Through stories and classroom-ready resources, students see both the creative potential of AI and the need to pause, ask questions and check sources before they act.

Leading Responsibly in the AI Age

For Gen, AI isn’t just a tool— it’s a responsibility. We design, test, and deploy AI to help protect people from fraud, scams and other online threats. And through AI education, partnerships and community engagement, we share our insights to help young people, families and communities better understand AI and use it responsibly. 

 

For more information on how we reach individuals, families and our communities with the knowledge and resources they need to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly, visit our 2025 Social Impact Report.