The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has become integrated into many people’s everyday lives, especially younger generations. Instead of turning to Google for research purposes, many younger people prefer ChatGPT for more instant gratification. The question becomes: Does this impede basic critical thinking skills?
Surprisingly, one Gen Zer seems to think so. In a Reddit postan 11th-grade student expressed concern for the future after looking at his Gen Alpha sister’s use of AI to complete her homework assignments.
The Gen Z teen shared that his 11-year-old little sister is in her last year of elementary school and actively uses his ChatGPT account to do her homework. He turned to Reddit because he was startled by his sister’s inability to understand elementary concepts.
She asked ChatGPT basic math problems, such as how many seconds are in three minutes and how many hours are there in a day. She went so far as to ask ChatGPT to complete every question on her 2-page math homework. To put it bluntly, he wrote, “Gen alpha is so cooked.”
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She did the same with her reading homework. She asked ChatGPT to read a very short 150-word poem, and then she copied her homework questions into the program. She didn’t even accept the full-length answers it gave her; she made ChatGPT convert them into one-sentence answers. He added that she simply copied those short answers without “understanding the poem or even reading it.”
Ultimately, the teen was worried that his sister’s homework habit was typical of Gen Alpha kids, making him question what that meant for their future and education. He wrote, “Gen Z is capable of writing and answering but use ChatGPT because they are lazy,” he said. “Gen Alpha will NEED to use it because they will not even be capable of doing it themselves.”
Gen Z grew up without AI integrated into daily life, so as the teen said, most Gen Zers are capable of doing the work they rely on AI to accomplish, but they still use it because it’s faster and easier than doing the work themselves. Gen Alpha, on the other hand, has had access to AI since they had access to computers. Meaning, they are bypassing any actual learning and are ultimately relying on artificial intelligence to do all their critical thinking.
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If there is unrestricted access to AI for kids, of course, they’re going to use it — that’s smart. This isn’t much different than copying directly out of an encyclopedia and changing a few words to try to trick your teacher. Teachers and parents can tell when a child is thinking independently or using another’s words, even if those words originate from ChatGPT. There is a simple solution that might help: restricting their access to AI.
At the same time, teachers can strategically design assignments that require independent thought and research outside of AI use. Even going back to basics using pen, pencil, and paper can be a quick solution.
Ultimately, experts agree that preventing kids from using AI isn’t the solution. Teaching them how to use it and when to use it and monitoring that usage are the best practices.
Blakeley Payne, a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, argued that educating kids on the creation and implementation of AI is the first step towards healthy integration. Essentially, teaching kids why AI does what it does instead of simply being a magic button that gives them answers quickly and empowers them with knowledge.
Payne told MIT Technology Review“It’s essential for them to understand how these technologies work so they can best navigate and consume them. We want them to feel empowered.” She went on to say, “Ten to 12 years old is the average age when a child receives his or her first cell phone, or his or her first social-media account. We want to have them really understand that technology has opinions and has goals that might not necessarily align with their own before they become even bigger consumers of technology.”
Children are the future, and if we want the future to be bright, then we’re going to have to make sure children understand the technology they are using, giving them the skills to think through the hows and whys of the answers they receive from artificial intelligence like ChatGPT.
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Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.
