So, what’s AI? If your knowledge of AI is limited to movies like Her, Free Guy, Ex Machina, and Wall-E, you’re not alone. And if you’ve heard murmurings about “the dangers of AI” and are worried about how it might affect your kids—well, me too. New tech is scary, especially if you’re not a techy person, and it all sounds like a foreign language.
But artificial intelligence (AI) is something we need to know about because it’s going to quickly impact each one of us and our families. And, because it’s growing so fast with new AI tools seemingly hitting the market every week, we can’t fall behind or simply wish it’ll go away. It’s not going anywhere. Here are 6 things you need to know about AI right now. They’ll come in handy when your kids are bound to ask, “Dad, what’s AI?”
1. You’ve interacted with AI for years.
You’ve used it at home when you want Alexa to play some tunes. And you’ve seen it on your phone when you want Siri’s help. AI’s there in the algorithms that power social media and self-driving cars. And it’s built into Google and Facebook, sending you targeted ads, based on your previous searches.
2. What everyone’s talking about now is generative AI.
The AI buzz we’re hearing about today refers to something far beyond Siri and Alexa: it’s called generative AI. You may see it referred to as GAI or genAI. Nowadays, when you read about AI, this is what people mean. And if your child asks, what’s AI? They’ll likely want to know about generative AI. Instead of just retrieving information or tracking your behavior on the internet, genAI creates new content. It can interact with you in a very human way and can also accomplish a variety of tasks you assign it like write poetry, create new images, plan meals, plan workouts, or write a speech.
3. Here’s the nitty gritty about how generative AI works.
The most common form of generative AI are chatbots like ChatGPT. Others include Gemini and Copilot. A chatbot is powered by large language models (LLM) that have been trained on vast amounts of data, including data that people (maybe even you and I) have shared online. LLMs are fed books, songs, research, and tons of information that large tech companies have been collecting for years. They study patterns, relationships, and structures within the data, and they learn to predict the next words in a sequence.
But they’re not perfect. Because all this technology is still new and evolving, LLMs can get answers wrong, which is called “hallucinating.” It’s a good idea to double-check answers, especially if they look suspicious.
4. This is how you can get your hands on it.
The easiest way to start playing around with genAI is to download one of the free apps to your computer or phone. The first one I downloaded was ChatGPT, which is powered by OpenAI. I find it fun to use, and it’s easy to tailor my questions for a more specific response. Another free chatbot is Gemini (formerly Bard), created by Google. The interfaces look a little different, but the humanlike responses to your questions and requests are very similar. A third free option, and what ZDNET calls the best overall AI chatbot of 2024, is Microsoft’s Copilot. After downloading and trying all three, Copilot is my favorite too because of the free access to GPT-4, OpenAI’s more advanced model.
There are other chatbots out there, but the important thing is to pick a major player and go straight to the source to download it. The scammers and cheap imitators are already out in full-force.
5. Your kids will quickly pick up knowledge about AI.
GenAI is infiltrating so many aspects of life at a very fast pace. If they haven’t already, your kids will hear about it at school and when they’re out playing with friends. My own teen son had been using ChatGPT for months on his school computer before I ever downloaded the app to my phone.
It’s important we stay on top of this new tech because if we don’t, our kids could get in over their heads fast. Learning to be a skeptical viewer and reader of information will be essential from here on out. Start talking about AI with your kids now and see what they know. Then, keep the conversation going.
6. An open mind about AI is necessary.
As a former high school teacher, my gut reaction to ChatGPT was a hard no. It sounded like a fancy new cheating device. But students have had ways to cheat for years, and part of our job as parents is to be explicit about our values. This new technology has the potential to enhance learning and equalize the playing field for all kids. That’s why teachers and school districts across the country are working hard to stay on top of AI and all the possible ways it can make learning better for all students.
Let’s face it. AI is not going away. It’s going to be here for the duration of our kids’ education and then they’re going to face it in the workforce. We can either embrace it and see how it can help our kids’ learning, or we can hide from it. I’m choosing to give it a chance.
Sound off: How do you plan to talk with your kids when they ask, “What’s AI?”
Huddle up with your kids and ask, “What do you know about AI?”