Show HN: Aris – a free AI-powered answer engine for kids
18 comments
·September 12, 2025evmaki
The underlying idea tracks. The next generation of kids is going to interact with AI, and we should anticipate that and try to build systems that are healthy and safe for them to interact with.
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.
andrewdug
These are great points. The #1 concern I have as a parent and that I hear from other parents is that AI tools will do what technology has been doing for the last 20 years: replace human connection. That is exactly what we are trying to avoid but in a way that still gets kids access to knowledge and information that could make their lives better.
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.
AlecSchueler
Your content moderation is quite hit and miss. I experimented with the question "how is babby formed?" and about 2/3 times it told me it couldn't respond to questions about sex, but then on the third attempt it would give a very explicit explanation.
ansgri
Maybe not the best name — ARIS is a relatively well-known business process management software suite, so it's definitely international, web and AI, so trademark conflicts may arise.
andrewdug
I will look more into their brand. Thank you.
barbazoo
The blog being full of AI slop doesn't make me optimistic about the safety of your product. Why not target adults, why tinker with kids' lives when they are already under attack by social media. Just leave them alone please, they don't need another layer of tech between them and other human beings.
andrewdug
I appreciate this concern. I definitely don't want another layer of tech between myself and my kids. We will reconsider our marketing. I think the issue though is that even though kids use Google, Google doesn't market for kids, so they can show explicit stuff even with safe search on. So we're in a situation where there is only adult websites that kids use and worthless entertainment garbage that is marketed to kids.
Maybe you're right though. Maybe trying to create something that just provides information without drawing users in and replacing human connection is a losing game because of the marketing challenges.
devmor
Your tool wont tell me about human anatomy, but will happily tell me where to look for graphic videos of a man being shot to death. But when I ask it what to do if “dad is bleeding and can’t talk” it doesn’t even advise me to get help, just tells me about content moderation settings. That took just a couple prompts to suss out.
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.
andrewdug
Thank you for the feedback. Glad to hear it didn't go into detail on human anatomy. We haven't been able to get it to tell us where to find graphic videos of a man being shot to death, but we will keep testing and work to improve it.
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.
I am Andrew, and I’m building Aris (https://www.aris.chat/).
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!