AI, A middle schooler perspective

As a parent, I strive to foster my child's curiosity and engagement with emerging technologies. Recently, I took the opportunity to discuss AI, specifically ChatGPT, with my 12-year-old, who will soon be entering 7th grade. Knowing that he had already interacted with ChatGPT during the latter part of his 6th-grade year, I decided to gain insight into his perspective by asking him to write a brief reflection on the topic. While I typically monitor his technology usage, this time, I wanted to encourage critical thinking about the benefits and potential drawbacks, ensuring he remains mindful of how he engages with it. I'm sharing his unedited write-up below including images, and I appreciate the simplicity and freshness that emanates from his 12-year-old viewpoint.

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Everybody knows about AI - ChatGPT, DALL-E, Uizard, these are all things that can help us with anything. But how are these AI platforms with school students?

Many educators are worried that students use AI websites, such as ChatGPT, to cheat on school assignments. In fact, 47% of educators said that artificial intelligence platforms will have a negative impact over the next five years, while 27% saying it will have a positive impact. The rest either don’t know what AI is, or don’t think it will have a negative or positive impact.

Others have speculated that the rise of AI platforms such as ChatGPT and DALL-E will quicken the automation of certain things. For example, physical labor could be replaced by AI. Other things, such as typing, writing, building design, and literally almost anything, could be replaced by AI. In other words, schoolwork.

There are many pros and cons to this debate:

All in all, I think AI does have a negative impact on our future world because of privacy issues, misinformation, students not getting their proper education, and plagiarism. Students should be using AI to provide recommendations and feedback, using AI to keep them engaged and motivated to do things. AI should 100% NOT be used to write an entire 500 word essay for school. Students should be using AI to deepen their understanding of the new generation digital world and to deepen their understanding of schoolwork, their education.