Google will start using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are age appropriate for its products, the company said Wednesday.

Google announced the new technique for determining users’ ages as part of a blog focused on “New digital protections for kids, teens and parents.” The automation will be used across Google products, including YouTube, a spokesperson confirmed. Google has billions of users across its properties and users designated as under the age of 18 have restrictions to some Google services.

“This year we’ll begin testing a machine learning-based age estimation model in the U.S.,” wrote Jenn Fitzpatrick, SVP of Google’s “Core” Technology team, in the blog post. The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety. 

“This model helps us estimate whether a user is over or under 18 so that we can apply protections to help provide more age-appropriate experiences,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

The latest AI move also comes as lawmakers pressure online platforms to create more provisions around child safety. The company said it will bring its AI-based age estimations to more countries over time. Meta rolled out similar features that uses AI to determine that someone may be lying about their age in September.

Google, and others within the tech industry, have been ramping their reliance on AI for various tasks and products. Using AI for age-related content represents the latest AI front for Google.

The new initiative by Google’s “Core” team comes despite the company reorganization that unit last year, laying off hundreds of employees and moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC reported at the time. 

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AppLovin shares soared almost 30% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported earnings and revenue that sailed past analysts’ estimates and issued better-than-expected guidance.

Here’s how the company performed compared with analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.73 vs. $1.24 expected
• Revenue: $1.37 billion vs. $1.26 billion expected

Net income in the quarter more than tripled to $599.2 million, or $1.73 per share, from $172.3 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Revenue jumped 43% from $953.3 million a year earlier.

AppLovin was the best-performing U.S. tech stock last year, soaring more than 700%, driven by the company’s artificial intelligence-powered advertising system. In 2023, AppLovin released the updated 2.0 version of its ad search engine called AXON, which helps put more targeted ads on the gaming apps the company owns and is also used by studios that license the technology.

AppLovin’s business has been split between advertising and apps, which is primarily made up of game studios that the company has acquired over the years. With the historic growth in its advertising unit, the apps business has become much less important, and now the company says it is selling it off.

“Today we’re announcing we’ve signed an exclusive term sheet to sell all of our apps business,” CEO Adam Foroughi said on the earnings call.

Later in the call, the company said it has signed a term sheet for the sale for a “total estimated consideration” of $900 million. That includes $500 million in cash, “with the remainder representing a minority equity stake in the combined private company.”

Advertising revenue climbed 73% in the quarter to almost $1 billion. The ad business was previously categorized as Software Platform. The company said it made the change because advertising accounts for “substantially all of the revenue in this segment.”

AppLovin said it expects first-quarter revenue of between $1.36 billion and 1.39 billion, exceeding the $1.32 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. More than $1 billion of that will come from its advertising segment, as the company said it is “still in the early stages” of bolstering its AI models.

“The roadmap ahead is filled with opportunities for iteration,” the company said in its shareholder letter. “As we execute, we believe we can continue to drive value creation for our shareholders.”

WATCH: AppLovin shares jump

Reddit shares fell more than 15% on Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected user numbers in its fourth-quarter earnings.

Here’s how the company did compared with LSEG estimates:

• Earnings per share: 36 cents vs. 25 cents expected
• Revenue: $428 million vs. $405 million expected

Global daily active uniques, or DAUq, rose 39% from a year earlier to an average of 101.7 million for the fourth quarter. That trailed Wall Street estimates of 103.1 million.

A Google search algorithm change caused some “volatility” with user growth in the fourth quarter, but the company’s search-related traffic has since recovered in the first quarter, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders.

“What happened wasn’t unusual — referrals from search fluctuate from time to time, and they primarily affect logged-out users,” Huffman wrote. “Our teams have navigated numerous algorithm updates and did an excellent job adapting to these latest changes effectively.”

Reddit has benefited from Google search updates and internal site improvements that have helped it gain a significant amount of new and returning users, which the social company refers to as logged-out users, over the past year and a half. Reddit has said it is working to convince logged-out users to create accounts as logged-in users, which are more lucrative for its business.

Global logged-in DAUq grew 27% year over year to 46.1 million in the quarter, while global logged-out DAUq rose 51% to 55.6 million, the company said.

On the earnings call, Huffman said that Google’s algorithm changes take place about twice a year, adding “not the first, not the last.”

“It primarily affects logged-out users in the U.S.,” he said. “This one was particularly interesting because there really was a swing down, but then a recovery shortly thereafter happened right at the end of the quarter.”

Despite missing on user number, the company otherwise reported a strong quarter and provided optimistic guidance.

Reddit’s sales jumped 71% in the quarter from $250 million a year earlier, the fastest growth rate for any quarter since 2022.

The company said first-quarter sales will be between $360 million and $370 million, ahead of the average analyst estimate of $358 million.

Net income almost quadrupled to $71 million, or 36 cents a share, from $18.5 million, or breakeven on a per-share basis, a year earlier. Reddit reported adjusted earnings of $154 million in the fourth quarter, topping analysts’ expectations of $128 million.

Reddit went public in march at $34 a share and has since seen its stock jump more than sixfold to $216.47 as of Wednesday’s close. The shares were up 32% this year prior to the after-hours selloff.

Reddit’s fourth-quarter earnings followed several other online advertising tech companies that recently reported their latest quarterly earnings.

Last week, Amazon reported fourth-quarter earnings, saying its online advertising business recorded $17.29 billion, up 18% from a year ago. In its fourth-quarter earnings, Pinterest said its sales in the period rose 18% year over year to $1.15 billion. 

Also last week, Alphabet said its Google advertising sales grew 11% from a year prior to $72.46 billion, while YouTube ad revenue jumped 14% to $10.47 billion in the fourth quarter. Snap, meanwhile, reported fourth-quarter revenue growth of 14% year over year to $1.56 billion.

In late January, Meta said its revenue for the fourth quarter came in at $48.39 billion, up 21% from the previous year. Microsoft also reported that its news advertising sales increased 21% year over year in its latest quarterly earnings. Microsoft does not disclose that unit’s quarterly sales figures.

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