Serendipity35

Artificial Intelligence is so ubiquitous -  both in visible ways and hidden away in how we use technology - that MIT Review published a piece on six things you should tell kids about artificial intelligence. I taught in a middle school and I know AI has entered that curriculum level, but even younger kids need to be taught and prepared for using AI.

One thing they suggest is the idea that AI is not your friend, but that doesn't mean it's your enemy. Chatbots are likely one of the first AI forms a younger child might encounter. That may be via a device such as Alexa. Yes, they "chat" in a somewhat friendly, conversational tone but younger kids need to be reminded that they are machines. That means not giving the machine any sensitive personal information which will be stored and used in a very large database. We know of cases where bots and apps have become "friends" for people in a serious way - and I'm not talking only about kids.

They also suggest conversations for young kids about how AI models are not replacements for search engines or a way to write your schoolwork. Following that idea, let it be known that teachers might accuse you of using an AI - possibly even when you haven’t used it.

Chatbots and recommender systems are designed to get you hooked and keep yu using them and maybe paying for a premium version. They might show you incorrect information. AI makes mistakes.

Of course, this is coming from Massachusetts Institute of Technology so their final suggestion is not to miss out on what AI is actually good at doing. "Students who find themselves struggling to understand a tricky topic could ask ChatGPT to break it down for them step by step, or to rephrase it as a rap, or to take on the persona of an expert biology teacher to allow them to test their own knowledge. It’s also exceptionally good at quickly drawing up detailed tables to compare the relative pros and cons of certain colleges, for example, which would otherwise take hours to research and compile."

The main is that parents and teachers need to have conversations about AI with the young people in their lives, and probably educate themselves about it too.