Information for Children and Young People

Why?! is a very smart computer, called AI, that has been given the image of a smart animal here that gives you answers to your questions. You can ask it anything that makes you curious – whether you can read or not.

Children from 4 to about 16 years old can use Why?!. Small children talk to an animal, older children can also type and read.

Press the speech bubble button and hold it while you speak. Let go when you’re done. If you can read and write, you can also type your question.

You have a glass of knowledge water every day. Every time you ask a question, it empties a little. At the beginning of the week, the bottle is full and there are extra glasses in case you’re particularly curious. Unused water comes back into the bottle within the week.

AI, especially when it should speak, uses a lot of energy and is expensive. That’s why we have the knowledge water, which sort of powers the AI. Every question and every answer uses some knowledge water.

You get a full bottle per week. From this, one glass is filled for each day of the week that you can use on that day. There’s water for ten glasses in the bottle, so three more glasses of water remain in the bottle. What you don’t use gets poured back into the bottle.

If you empty your glass on one day, you can refill from your bottle.

No, we don’t limit any time. How long you think about a question or an answer is entirely up to you. Take your time, that’s important.

You can ask almost anything, but some topics might not be allowed yet. Then the animal says “That’s not possible right now” and explains it to you kindly. Your parents have decided that they prefer to talk to you about it themselves. Feel free to ask them about it.

You now get a complete chat interface, as the answers you receive become more comprehensive. A big change is that you can access previous chats from the last 30 days. These are stored on the device where you started them.

Even if voice mode in Why?! is deactivated, you can dictate your questions. Use the microphone on your keyboard for this. This doesn’t recognize speech quite as well as the previous speak button but doesn’t use any knowledge water.

Older children can activate a “boost” when they ask more difficult questions or need more information. This makes the answers more complex and multi-layered but also uses more of your knowledge water.

Normally, an AI is always limited to information from the past, to the time when the AI learned the knowledge. However, if you turn on web search, questions about current topics can also be answered.

Recognizing the voice and reading the answers aloud costs a lot of energy and thus knowledge water. All of this is no longer necessary in chat mode, so more energy remains for your chat with the AI.

Your exact questions and conversations are not stored on our server. The app remembers which topics you like. Your parents see an overview of what the AI answered you, but not your questions.

Basically, Why?! can support you with all your questions. But remember that you can hardly learn anything if you don’t think for yourself too!

The AI only knows your age so it can explain the answers to you correctly. Your name and birth date remain safe on our server. Otherwise, the AI only knows about you what you tell it.

Yes, but adults have to create a profile for you first. This way everything stays safe.

This shows you how much knowledge water you’ve already used. This way you learn that knowledge is valuable and you can also learn to ration something you like. Just like with chocolate. That also tastes longer if you enjoy it.

At the beginning, when an adult creates your profile, you can either choose an already finished picture that you like, or you can tell the AI what you want. You can have up to 3 new, special avatars created. They can have different styles, e.g., Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Sci-Fi, or realistic.

With an adult, you can edit your profile and create a new avatar or select a different one.

No, not really! Maybe you speak a bit too unclearly, press the speak button too late, or let go of it too early. But that’s not bad, usually quite funny answers come out of it. Maybe you’ll come across a completely new topic that way. And afterwards, just try again.