The age and chemical characteristics of the Galactic bulge link to the formation and evolutionary history of the Galaxy .
Data-driven methods and large surveys enable stellar ages and precision chemical abundances to be determined for vast regions of the Milky Way , including the bulge .
Here , we use the data-driven approach of The Cannon , to infer the ages and abundances for 125,367 stars in the Milky Way , using spectra from apogee DR14 .
We examine the ages and metallicities of 1654 bulge stars within \mbox { $R _ { \text { GAL } } $ } < 3.5 kpc .
We focus on fields with b < 12 ^ { \circ } , and out to longitudes of l < 15 ^ { \circ } .
We see that stars in the bulge are about twice as old ( \tau = 8 Gyrs ) , on average , compared to those in the solar neighborhood ( \tau = 4 Gyrs ) , with a larger dispersion in [ Fe/H ] ( \approx 0.38 compared to 0.23 dex ) .
This age gradient comes primarily from the low- \alpha stars .
Looking along the Galactic plane , the very central field in the bulge shows by far the largest dispersion in [ Fe/H ] ( \sigma _ { [ Fe / H ] } \approx 0.4 dex ) and line of sight velocity ( \sigma _ { vr } \approx 90 km/s ) , and simultaneously the smallest dispersion in age .
Moving out in longitude , the stars become kinematically colder and less dispersed in [ Fe/H ] , but show a much broader range of ages .
We see a signature of the X-shape within the bulge at a latitude of b = 8 ^ { \circ } , but not at b = 12 ^ { \circ } .
Future apogee and other survey data , with larger sampling , affords the opportunity to extend our approach and study in more detail , to place stronger constraints on models of the Milky Way .