jUres White believed his 11-year-old son needed to know how to code to succeed. But now, a Vanderbilt computer science professor says it’s more important for James to learn new and more useful skills.
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Since Openai released ChatGpt in 2022, White has been showing his son the generated AI rope. He started by showing James how ChatGpt could create a game using pictures of toys on the floor of his house. White then exposed him to the hallucination flaws of AI while robbing his son of the world record generated by ChatGpt with confirmed information from the Guinness World Records. After more than two years of experimentation, White’s son, now in fifth grade, learned how to integrate AI into a variety of everyday activities, from creating research materials to determining the cost of unpriced shoes.
“My goal is not to make him a generative AI wizard,” White said. “It’s about using AI to creatively build, explore perspectives and give him the foundation to enrich learning.”
With more and more parents teaching young children how to use AI chatbots, White is ready to deploy the tools responsibly as a personal assistant in school, work and everyday life when they are older.
Parents are interested in how generative AI proliferation affects a child’s personal growth. According to a 2023 Ipsos poll, AI tools such as ChatGpt should ban AI tools that should be banned in schools to avoid fraud. Despite limited research into the effects of AI on children’s critical thinking skills, UNICEF and other children’s health organizations have questioned how classwork chatbot reliance on chatbots affects cognitive development.
The rapid evolution of AI can make it difficult for untechnical parents to intervene when children misuse it. According to the 2023 National Parents Union vote, only 16% of parents with children from kindergarten to 12th grade said they have a solid grasp of AI capabilities.
Openai and Google’s terms of service state that the AI model is for users over the age of 13, but some parents bend the rules and introduce AI to young children anyway, although cautious. These parents hope to help their children view AI as an incomplete tool that can extend rather than hinder human capabilities.
“This will take over everything,” White said. “I want him to prepare.”
Parents who spoke with the Guardian believe that exposing their children to AI early can increase their creativity, hone their critical thinking and improve their communication skills.
AI consultant Ola Handford introduced ChatGpt to his home in early 2023. Some nights focused on free exploration, while others consisted of reflecting on Taylor Swift’s lyrics from the Squirrel perspective. Her children are currently using AI to research, recipes, discussions, and find out what to do when traveling.
These activities serve as springboards for discussion of risks such as deepfakes and AI peers, the dark side of AI related to crime, emotional dependence, and risks associated with suicide. Handford shows children’s AI tools, including Character.ai, explaining that avatars are computer generated and not real people. She emphasizes that if children treat them as humans, AI peers can have “serious consequences.”
What ChatGpt said had nothing to do with it. The important thing was that it made a bridge between my son and me.
Kunal Dalal, AI Administrator
“Deepfakes and AI peers are a priority concern as they can affect my child and can be very harmful,” Handford said. She believes that “playing” with these tools raises awareness.
White also highlights the responsible use of AI with his son. The professor’s activities are designed to show 11-year-olds how to unleash creative possibilities, such as building games that support learning rather than simply acting as a search engine. Without guidance, the elder said that children could trick their studies into misusing ChatGpt, leading to “intellectual laziness.”
“If your goal is to copy and paste ChatGpt answers, you’re not really contributing to society,” White said. He added that he wants AI to be seen as a tool to rethink the process of the workforce, where the demand for AI skills is growing.
In addition to gaining competitiveness in the job market, some parents view AI as a tool that helps to increase empathy and trust with their families.
Kunal Dalal, an AI administrator for the Orange County Department of Education, uses AI every day to bond with her 4-year-old son. They use ChatGpt to make music and use AI art generators such as Dall-E to create personalized images containing illustrations of Dalal’s childhood in Bombay, India. The most persuasive use case, he says, is to encourage tough conversations with his son.
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When Dalal realizes he’s too strict or that his son is struggling emotionally, they sit around ChatGpt on his smartphone and talk about it. Dalal calls this tactic the “communication triangle.”
For example, if Dalal notices that his son is upset, Dalal opens the voice function of Chatgutt, explains the situation to the AI and asks the chatbot what he can do as a father to comfort his child. AI examines your son’s emotions, proposes active listening techniques, and provides practical ways to reduce stress. ChatGpt’s response can help Dalal understand what he needs when he feels upset.
“What ChatGpt said had nothing to do with it,” Dalal said. “The key is that it created a bridge between my son and me.”
wBecause some parents open their arms and embrace technology, AI can drive wedges between parents and children when tech is being misused.
Xu warns that by introducing ChatGpt to a 10-year-old child, AI can erode the child’s trust in their parents. If children view AI knowledge as the best, they may resort to it for guidance to their parents. That’s especially true if parents don’t know how often their children use AI. This is something Xu observes frequently in her research. Companies that tout AI peers as child-friendly amplify this concern, she said, adding that excessive reliance on AI could blur the boundaries between actual human interactions and AI-generated responses.
My goal is not to make him a generative AI wizard. It’s about giving him the foundation for using AI
Jules White
Still, Xu says there is the advantage of introducing generator AI into children. Access to technology can expand the scope of information sources and make its use more seamless as it grows. But exposing AI to children requires a controlled, intentional environment.
When he spoke to the Guardian, parents said they would prioritize the director. White and Dalal only allow children to use ChatGpt on their devices, and Handford says that children don’t use AI during their personal time like social media. This says it’s even more dangerous as platforms like Tiktok can be exposed to cesspools of suspicious content. Dalal limits the number of CHATGPT questions his son can do to reduce environmental costs.
He said he plans to advance over White and others to increase the complexity of AI activities as new tools like AI agents present new learning opportunities.
“I’m excited about Agent AI,” the professor said. “We haven’t explored it yet, but that’s next on the list.”
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