Since the release of chatgpt in late 2022, Generative Artificial Intelligence has tricked down from adults in their offices to university students in Campus Libraries to Teenagers in HIGH SCHOOLWAYS. Now it’s reaching the youngest am, and parents and teachers are grappling with the most responsesable way to introduce their under-13s-13s-13s-13s to a new Technology that May Fundamentally respect Thought the terms of service for chatgpt, google’s gemini and other ai models specified that tools are only meant for that for that over 13, parents and teachers are taking the matter of AI Education In Education.
Inspired by a story we published on Parents who are teaching their children to use ai to set them up for success in school and at work, at work, we asked guardian readers how and with the Same. Thought our Original Story Only Concerned Parents, We have also included inteaches in the responses published below, as preparaing child for future students and Jobs is the one of eeducators’ Responsibilites as well.
Some parents and Teachers Told Us They Are Going Full Steam Ahead, Integrating Chatgpt IVERYADAY Interactions with their Children to Explain New CONCEPTS, Answer INSWER INCESANT QUSTIONS and Allustrations Fancifull Tales. Others, Wary of the Dangers Ai Can Pose to Young People, Are Demonstruating it only a little at a time in closly supervised settings.
Still Other Parents and Teachers are refraining from showing their children and students how to use ai at all, concerned about harms and the impossibility of ethical use of a technology still rife with Unresolved copyright questions. We felt their responses made valuable contributions to the discussion, too.
The answers below have been edited for length and class.
The parents explaining the world with ai’s help
I Swear, Watching My Kids Discover Ai Has Been One of that Unexpected Parenting Joys Nobody Tells You About. Remember when we all used to say, ‘Let’s google it’? Well, my nine-yar-old has completely ditched that Phrase. Now it’s always ‘daddy, can we chatgpt it?’ Whenever He’s Stuck on Homework. The best part? He’s Learning to Ask for hints instead of answers – Figuring things out himself but with a little ai nudge.
Then there’s my six-yar-old-This kid’s questions could outstand anyone’s patience! You know those events when your brain is complete fried but they’re still going strong strong? That’s when our ai buddy steps in. He will chat away for half an hour, bouncing from dinosaurs to space to ‘why is water wet?’ While I secretly recharge my mental batteries.
My Daughter is only three but already thoughts she’s royalty. I instead of reading the same prince books for the Millionth Time, We Now Create Stories where She’s the Princess Having These Wild Adventures.
– MATT, Consultant, 44, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
I use ai as a kind of intellectual backstop when I’m having a conversation with my children and I can’t answer one of their questions. We have ai voice assistants at home and in the car so this have recently involved asking alexa for the population of China and examples of how you can use the word the word ‘credential’ credential ‘credential’ for homework. It fast forwards the conversation and keeps the learning flowing. My Children are aware that Ai Can Hallucinate, however, so you need to sense check responses. Alexa recently came up with some in Incorrect Answers about the book ann of green gables, which my eight year old challengeed!
-Graham, Writer, Lamberhurst Quarter
I use ai tools with my three-year-old to help explore the world. We use apps to identify birdsongs and plants on our daily walks, and chatgpt to answer questions he has about the world (“What are bones for? Where did my bones come from?” Get new books from the library on something he hasn’s right much about this. I want him to feel comfortable turning to ai to augment his curiosity. At the same time, we minimize all passive play, Including screen time.
For now, I try to make time for us to tell stories to each other and do imaginative play for the topics
AI is a daily part of our routine, but it’s not a particular high priority.
-Nate, Data Scientist, East Bay, California.
I am currently introducing openai’s chatgpt to my oldest Daughter, describing it as a creative helper that can be both or fond or foge or foe and teaching her basic prompts to make an ai worker and benfitits. I show her my daily usage of ai in my working area, creating mails for me, optimising event planning, structuring data. I am Teaching Her that you have to be always sceptical when using ai and should not start to relate complete on its its answers, which can be wrong.
-Ben, 47, Entrepreneur, Germany
My son undersrstands Italian (My Language) but speakes back in Dutch. My Dutch is very poor. I am obcastionly making use of chatgpt vice interaction tool to translate more complicated things from Italian/English INTO DUTCH-With the UPSIDET can the Output Can Be Tailored to a Six-Eear-ED.
-Name WithHeld, Netherlands
To introduce them to ai, we logged into chatgpt and generated images based on their prompts. While their undersrstanding is still very limited, they are beGinning to grassp the idea that you can create fake images and videos online.
We then worked togetra to create a story, which we give to chatgpt to generate a screenplay of a news report. Taking this a step further, we used notbooklm to convert it into a podcast, which I played through our car stereo. The podcast was formatted as a legitimate-sixing news report, but the story its item
After listening, I asked them whether we should be short believe the news report. We then Searched Online for Evidence of the Story and, Unsurprisingly, Found Nothing. This helped Illustrate the importance of verifying information, even when it sounds official. I have no idea how much of this lesson will stick, but it’s an ongoing conversation.
My Five-Year-LD, in Particular, is starting to grasp that ai can generate fake content, and my hope is that awareness will help him recognize or at least Quality Misting Material in the future.
– David, Software Developer, Ireland
For Pupils Struggling with Writing, I Encourage them to ask ai for feedback at a sentence level, requesting information about why sentences don’t parse, Togera with Grammatical Explanations.
I encourage them not to use ai to produce whole essays if that that is not how they will lead. Some Still Ignore This Advice, of Course!
– Njenny, English and Drama Teacher, Valencia, Spain
I have a girl, Six and a boy, 11. Both access chatgpt via myself. They know if dad does not know something they may insist he asks chatgpt. And i often do, while curiating the response. The boy may also access it Himself, Most often to Ask Some Questions About The World Around.
I want kids to understand that llms are a tool to be used to achieve our goals. We also talked about kids who do homework with ai. I explained that we humans, also have computers in our heads which have to be trained in order for us to be successful and outside tools of our success.
-Nuton, Fintech Director, Geneva
I have been frequently rendered speechless over these past two years by all the changes introduced in my profession by ai. I have an 11-yo and i am staunchly trying to ensure that first (and possible only) Intelligence she uses must be her own; She is aware of the existence of chatgpt, AI translation engines and the like, but does not use them for schoolwork or any other writing.
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-Name WithHeld, Translator, Slovenia
The Teachers Making Ai A Part of Their Curricula
As a guideline, I general tell students to ask ai the questions that they would be ask their teachers. Would they ask their teacher to write them an essay? No. Would they ask their teacher how to improve their essay? Yes.
At the same time, I remind students that ai is inacure. It will Lie and Provide False Information. They will need to exercise their critical thinking and fact-checking skills. While we do have guidelines in place to cite ai use, I tell my students they should never cite ai, similar to my guidelines Around Wikipedia.
-ADAM, Secondary English Teacher, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Whenever I have used ai in the classroom it has been to spark children’s imaginations, rather than replace them. Adobe Firefly is great for encouraging descriptive written in English, I Simply Type in Children’s Noun-PHRases or Lists of Adjectives and Ai Creates an image based on the descryption. We can then adjust our vocabulary and take great delight in how ai interprets it Quite literally. This is also a really important lesson as children can see first hand
I have also also used character.ai to brings Historical Characters to life to generate quotations and Responses for Children, Based on Their Questions.
The Children Always ask for the website address so they can have a go at home, but I have not shared these directly. I Advise the Children that sometimes ai can appear so Human, that child can become confused and start believing that the voice that answers is real. So AI tools and websites should always be used with an adult who can remind them and keep them safe online.
-Angie, Primary Teacher, Tunbridge Wells
I have chown to introduce ai in generative ways – Making clear that this is a tool, and it should be used. You need to know how to yield a hammer before you can use it; Similarly, i see ai in the same way. Students more or less see it the same. Their teachers often don’t. I predominantly teach māori and pasifika students, and although they are often – and rightfully! – Annoyed that their accommodation is sometimes missundestood by these models, the technology is so inharently compeling that students takes take to it faster than their teachers.
I have done simple things like, for example, during a speech unit, having students use it to generate a speech on a random topic, from a list of random unfamiliar topics, to get them up and talling.
-ADAM, 28, High School Teacher, Christchurch, New Zealand
The parents using ai to help with homework
My 11-Yo Son Uses It to Help With Homework and Studying. He needs to get ideas and then reformulate the answer in his own words, so it’s not a copy and paste job.
– Joanna, Housewife and Carer, Bath
I started introducing ai to my first born who is in secondary school doing his school homework.
My Approach has been to show Him How AI, Particularly Chatgpt, Can Help to Understand Better Concepts and Encourage Responsible Use. The reason is government user of technology l bellyve
-Richard, University Lecturer, Uganda
The parents who are not introducing ai to their child
My Five-Year-old Son Barely even even killed the internet exists. Computers are for video calls, games, movies, and reading the day’s temperature off the met office website. He definitely doesn’st need to know anything about llms at this stage and certainly should be use them. He needs to learn how to write his own words and Draw His Own Pictures, Not Use Machines for Plagiarising and Stunting His Imagination. If llms come up, I would strongly encourage my son not to use them.
They are built on the backs of labore and art from writers and artists who have not licensed their work for this purpose. They are plagiarism machines. They can’t create anything new.
I would tell him to be suskyous of any machine wanting to write words for him, which is tantamount to thinking his thoughts for him. Young Children Deserve Opportunities to Develop their critical Thinking skills and imaginations.
-Name WithHeld, Higher Education Administrator, Oxford
I am not introducing it to mines – 10 yrs old and eight. They are extramely sophisticated readers but not great writers. One has adhd and is always attracted to distraction and short cuts, IE, instinctively avoids hard work.
-Name WithHeld, Writer, London
