Ello’s Stance on AI Safety & Ethics

Working at the intersection of education, AI, and child development is a privilege and a responsibility. AI technology presents immense opportunities for children to have interactive experiences with highly engaging content that sparks their curiosity and uncovers their hidden talents. And, this technology poses risks including bias, lack of representation, and privacy concerns.

Here are the principles we follow as a company to guide our product development:

Our AI technology is safe. All content on our app must be safe, and children’s data must be protected and handled responsibly.

Our AI technology is equitable. Our mission is to maximize every child’s potential, regardless of their resources or environment. Teaching “every child” means that we take diversity into account when designing our product, including but not limited to differences in nationality, culture, gender, and learning styles.

Our AI technology is educational. Apps have infinite potential for entertainment–but the purpose of Ello is to be educational and promote a love of learning.

Our AI technology is used for social impact. We don’t use AI because it’s a trend. We use AI because it is a powerful tool that will enable all children to have access to 1:1 learning support.

FAQ on AI Safety

Ello uses AI in three main places:

1. Open conversation: In Ello, children speak with Ello conversationally about the book they are reading, comprehension questions, and personal interests. Example: if the book includes a pet dog, Ello might ask, “Do you have any pets?”
2. Speech recognition: Ello uses AI technology to understand if children are pronouncing words correctly, in order to provide targeted coaching.
3. Story text & images: Some (not all) of Ello’s stories and illustrations have been created with AI technology.

1: Open Conversation: Is it safe for my child to have an open ended conversation with AI?

What will my child and Ello talk about?

Ello has specific instructions to talk to the child about the learning activities. Ello will ask the child questions about their interests as a way to engage their attention. For example, in a book about pets, Ello might ask, “Do you have any pets?” Ello will also ask follow up questions.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at support@ello.com.

What if Ello or my child says something inappropriate?

Our moderation protocols (including multiple layers of safety from Ello as well as OpenAI and Gemini filters) will prevent the agent from bringing up prohibited content (e.g. explicit content, illegal activities, violence, etc.) . However, children sometimes share sensitive content in conversations. Conversations are moderated in real time. If prohibited content is detected in a conversation:

1. Ello will end the conversation, steer the conversation away from the topic, redirect to general themes, or encourage the child to speak to an adult.
2. Our moderation system will automatically flag the conversation to our internal team.

If you have questions or believe a conversation was flagged by mistake, contact us at support@ello.com.

2: Speech recognition. Does Ello’s AI speech recognition work for children with various accents and speech differences?

We trained Ello’s speech recognition model thanks to volunteer parents & children who provided thousands of hours of audio recording of reading. This data included child speech from children of all demographics in the United States, as well as a large sample of child speech from Kenya.

We have internal tools to compare how accurate the speech recognition model is across different populations. Currently, our speech models exhibit high accuracy among all demographic groups.

3: AI generated stories and images: Are they safe and appropriate?

• All books in the weekly educational quests were written by literacy specialists to ensure alignment with the Science of Reading.

• Books that children create with Ello in “Story Creation” mode are written in real time based on the child’s conversation with Ello. Therefore, they are not reviewed by a human.

        

We have put in extensive safety review on Story Creation. This review included but was not limited to the following:

• Educational value: Our engineering & literacy team iterated on Story Creation extensively, until a team of 8 reading specialists blind-rated stories at a minimum 4 / 5 rating for narrative quality & appropriate reading level.
• Content safety: Before finalizing Story Creation, Ello reviewed more than 2000 stories & images
• Filtering through both OpenAI and Gemini safety systems: In addition to Ello’s filters, all stories and images are passed through both OpenAI & Gemini’s moderation. You can read more about their moderation systems here and here.

Is Ello recording my child speaking?

Ello needs to record your child’s voice while they speak and read so we can accurately detect their reading level and adapt lessons to match their needs.

Some recordings are also used for research and to train the models that improve how accurately Ello hears and understands child speech. This ensures Ello can keep giving your child, and others, a better, more personalized learning experience. Children's voice data is sensitive personal information. We take extensive precautions to protect this data, including encryption at rest and in transit, restricted access, and secure storage.

We will never sell your child’s data or use it for advertising.

Can I trust the AI tutor to teach my child to read effectively?

Ello is best utilized as a supplemental program to complement a full reading curriculum. Our progression of books and phonics lessons spans Kindergarten through 3rd grade, are aligned with the Science of Reading, and have been reviewed by trained reading specialists.

We are similar to a reading tutor in that Ello:

• Presents phonics lessons
• Provides books at the child’s appropriate level, aligned with the phonics lesson
• Listens to children read, correcting mispronounced words
• Asks the child questions about the books to check for comprehension
• Takes turns reading with the child to model fluent reading
• Offers encouragement

Has your AI been independently reviewed and tested?

Yes! Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit which evaluates media and technology for children, conducted a full review of Ello in September 2023 and August 2024. Ello was one of the top rated apps for AI safety, and was found to be low risk.