When ChatGPT first came out, I was clear on my stance: absolutely, under no circumstances would I allow it in my classroom. However, I have shifted my perspective after listening to experts on different sides of the debate. Let’s open this pandora’s box together and explore the benefits and risks.
What are the Benefits of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT has enormous potential to help many students and is a great equalizer. Not everyone has access to quality schools or tutors. Not everyone can keep up with the pace of their classroom. Students are unequally sick and miss school. ChatGPT can be that extra support that students need whenever they need it. It makes adapting to styles and preferences easy and makes learning more engaging.
Additionally, most jobs will use AI within the next five years. If you do not allow your students to use AI, you are preventing them from gaining valuable skills that they will use in their careers. Students need to learn how to use AI the way they need to learn how to type; it is a fundamental skill.
Are there Good Ways that I can use ChatGPT to help my child study?
The possibilities are endless when using ChatGPT, but here are just a few of these ideas. You can ask it to give you definitions of key terms. You can ask it to provide you with background on a topic that you are unfamiliar with. It can give you practice questions on any topic at any grade level. It can answer any questions you may have. It can help you understand your homework. It can give you step-by-step instructions about how to solve something. It will take some exploring to determine what works best for your student, but this is time well spent. I’ve dedicated an entire other article to exploring 50 Ways to use ChatGPT without Cheating for more concrete examples of how you can use this tool.
What’s the Harm of ChatGPT?
Renowned linguistic scholar Noam Chomsky (2023) summarized the challenges of AI, saying he fears it “…will degrade our science and debase our ethics.” Chomsky (2023) and others argue that AI is built on plagiarism, taking in knowledge from creators who are never acknowledged or paid for their work.
Talk to your child about the ethics surrounding AI. How could ChatGPT take away people’s jobs? Where did the information come from that ChatGPT uses to generate answers? Were those people compensated? If they are not mature enough to evaluate the pros and cons, they are not old enough to use this tool.
Furthermore, we need to address the potential to cheat. Most students know someone who has used ChatGPT to copy answers for an assignment or write a paper. Rather than encouraging them to use ChatGPT for cheating, talking about it will empower them with knowledge and make them more likely to use this technology positively. Colleges view using ChatGPT to write assignments as plagiarism and grounds for immediate expulsion. Students need to understand the grave consequences of using this technology in this unethical way.
How should I start talking to my child about ChatGPT?
When introducing the idea of using any AI platform, I always emphasize that it is a tool. A hammer is a tool that we can use to build a house or to hurt someone. How we use the tool matters. The same is true for ChatGPT. You can use this tool to build, learn, and create, or you can use it to destroy, cheat, and harm.
Finally, while AI is getting smarter daily, it is deeply flawed. After deeply investigating ChatGPT, I found it makes grammar, math, and comprehension mistakes. No one should ever take ChatGPT as doctrine; instead, they should use it in conjunction with other strategies and resources.
Is Chat GPT Safe?
Nothing on the Internet is ever 100% safe. Always talk to your children about Internet safety, and this includes AI. Every time you type something into ChatGPT, the program learns from your responses. I would not enter personal information into ChatGPT because we don’t know who will have access to or use this information in the future.
Talk with your students about the ways that AI and ChatGPT are being used by predatory people. Research repeatedly tells us that students who are informed are safer. Talk with students about how predatory people are doctoring photos, texts, and messages to make themselves sound or look younger to earn the trust of teenagers. Even really smart, talented people can be tricked by predatory people; information is power and can facilitate prevention.
Finally, the platform does not have age settings for younger students. When students ask questions, the platform answers them without considering their age. This system may lead to answers that do not necessarily match the student’s maturity level. Especially about sensitive topics, you want to ensure your child is coming to you with their questions, not the Internet.
On the plus side, ChatGPT answers most questions respectfully, clearly, and coherently. When Google came out (Millennial), my parents were worried that I would see pictures that were inappropriate for my age. It is nice to have a site that can give you answers without pictures, and I do think that it is safer to type your homework questions, regardless of topic, into ChatGPT over a search engine.
So, Should I Let My Kid Use ChatGPT?
In general, talk to them about the holistic risks, benefits, and harm of using this platform. Have specific expectations for using ChatGPT and hold your child accountable. Consider exploring this tool together before you allow them to create their own account and use it independently.
Sources
Chomsky, N. & Wattumul, J. (2023). Noam Chomsky: The false promise of ChatGPT. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html