A Generation of AI Guinea Pigs

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the growing presence of AI in children's lives and the concerns and challenges that come with it. It explores how AI is being introduced in schools, the potential benefits and risks for children, and the need to involve children in the governance of AI.

🙋 Q&A

[01] A Generation of AI Guinea Pigs

1. What is the Los Angeles Unified School District doing with AI? The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school district in the US, has introduced a learning platform called "Ed" that includes a chatbot. The district wants to empower teachers and students to learn to use AI safely and is also offering a mandatory Digital Citizenship in the Age of AI course for students aged 13 and up.

2. How are young children reacting to the AI chatbot "Ed"? The three first graders interviewed like the chatbot "Ed" and enjoy when it awards them gold stars, but they don't fully understand what AI is. One child thought it was a "supersmart robot".

3. How are different age groups experiencing AI? Younger children may hear bedtime stories generated by ChatGPT, while older teens may encounter chatbots on the apps they use. Children are serving as "beta testers" for this new generation of digital technology.

4. What are the concerns about children using AI for schoolwork? There are concerns that children will rely too heavily on AI chatbots like ChatGPT to do their schoolwork, which could undermine the learning process. There are also concerns about the potential for AI to provide biased or inaccurate information, and about the privacy issues around the data used to train these AI models.

5. How is AI enabling new forms of adolescent cruelty? The article mentions an incident where students at a Beverly Hills middle school were expelled for creating and circulating fake nude photos of their classmates using generative AI. This has reportedly become an "epidemic" in schools across the country.

[02] Navigating the Challenges of AI for Children

1. How do different age groups view the impact of AI on their lives? According to a survey, about 40% of teens and young adults (ages 14-22) believe that AI will bring both good and bad into their lives in the next decade. The optimistic respondents think AI will assist them with work, school, and community, and boost their creativity, while the pessimistic ones worry about job losses, copyright violations, misinformation, and AI "taking over the world".

2. How might AI further blur the lines of reality for young children? For very young children, AI could make it even harder to distinguish between what is real and what is not. They may start talking to AI assistants like Alexa in a rude or bossy way, as they may not fully understand that they are talking to a machine.

3. Why is it particularly challenging for older children and teens to separate reality from AI-generated content? Even adults are struggling to identify deepfakes and other AI-generated content. For middle and high school students, this task is even more challenging, as they need more media and digital literacy skills to navigate these technologies.

4. What is the role of children in the governance of AI? The article argues that children deserve to be consulted as rules and guidelines are developed for the use of AI. UNICEF has created a list of requirements for "child-centered AI", but the author notes that there is a lack of children's voices in the ongoing discussions around AI governance.