Here’s a quick riddle for you: what do Madame Bovary, Dungeons & Dragons and ChatGPT have in common? This book, fantasy role-playing game and AI chatbot might not seem connected at first glance, but all three have been at the center of a moral panic. They’ve all managed to cause widespread fear or anxiety because some people saw them as a threat to our values and wellbeing.
Madame Bovary caused a moral panic in the late 1800s because some people worried that young women would become consumed by the novel and lose the ability to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Dungeons & Dragons caused a moral panic in the 80s and 90s because some people worried it encouraged Satanism, witchcraft, murder, suicide and pornography. And ChatGPT? Well, school districts are very, very concerned that the new AI-powered chatbot will lead kids to a life of plagiarism and cheating.
Created by OpenAI, ChatGPT is a new platform that’s capable of some pretty astonishing things: it can write college-level essays, create computer code and carry on a conversation in a near-human way. Think of it like a really, really sophisticated version of the predictive text that offers to finish your sentences in a text or email. It’s been trained on the vast amount of text on the internet, learning to make sophisticated guesses about what words naturally go together. It’s all a bit uncanny, actually. ChatGPT is a major leap in chatbot technology, so I’m not surprised that it’s caused a bit of moral panic.
And, teachers and school administrators aren’t the only ones worried about this new tech. (I’ve seen plenty of journalists and writers fret about the future of their profession.) But the fear seems to be especially pronounced for educators—so much so that many school districts have banned the new technology.
They’re worried that students will use ChatGPT to do their homework—and it’s not a totally unfounded concern. The technology is so good at writing that it can certainly be used that way. And, during one experiment, education experts and teachers couldn’t even tell the difference between essays written by the chatbot and those written by students. This truly is a platform with new capabilities, so it poses unique challenges. I agree that students shouldn’t be allowed to pass off AI writing as their own, but banning the whole platform seems like a losing strategy to me. Instead of burying our heads in the sand and rejecting this new tech, we should be adapting the classroom to make use of it.
I don’t have all the answers when it comes to incorporating new tech into an existing curriculum, but I know that my ultimate goal as a parent is to help my kids think critically about the platforms they use. I want them to understand how they work, know their limitations and hopefully learn how to use them responsibly. If they learn those skills early, it can only benefit them in the future. After all, these technologies aren’t going anywhere—and they do have useful applications.
ChatGPT should not be a way for us to outsource our brains. Instead, it’s an efficient way to scour a lot of data and compile a decent summary. If you understand the way it works and know how to use it with a grain of salt, it could be a great tool in your tool belt. Just like a calculator helps us tackle advanced problems in math class, ChatGPT could help us brainstorm an essay topic or strengthen a thesis statement in social studies class.
At the end of the day, AI is coming whether schools like it or not. ChatGPT is just the first platform to make a splash, but other tech companies are working on similar things. In fact, Microsoft is in talks to include ChatGPT technology into their products (so get ready for a new Clippy the paper clip on steroids). I think it’s my job as a parent to instill good values in my kids and help them understand the difference between using a tool properly and using it to cheat. If we teach our kids to use AI responsibly, it can give them a new way to learn, generate ideas, explore concepts and dive deep into a subject. And isn’t that the best-case scenario for AI?
A deeper dive
Here are a few helpful resources in case you want to really dig into today's topic:
This article from the New York Times offers a thoughtful take on the best ways to integrate this new technology into our own lives. My favorite argument: “A.I. can be helpful if we’re looking for a light assist. A person could ask a chatbot to rewrite a paragraph in an active voice. A nonnative English speaker could ask ChatGPT to remove grammatical errors from an email before sending it. A student could ask the bot for suggestions on how to make an essay more persuasive.”
And if you’re interested in putting the ChatGPT panic into perspective, here’s an awesome piece from Björn Jeffery. He introduced the Madame Bovary example I cited above, and uses it to make a compelling case for thinking critically about screen time.
TL;DR
Too long; didn't read. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep up on industry news, so here is a mercifully quick summary of some other notable developments:
If you’ve been following my newsletter for a while, you’re already familiar with the Gas app, a platform that lets teens share anonymous compliments. There’s a new, similar app in Germany called Slay that works in much the same way. Positioned as a “positive social media network for teenagers,” it’s already creating a buzz and attracting investors.
Some tech companies have started asking you to provide additional information about your family—including your children’s birthdays. All of this is part of the evolving child privacy and safety landscape online, but should parents offer their kids’ ages when prompted? Like most things in life, it depends.
And Lastly
Here are a few more pieces of original writing from me and my team—just in case you're keen for more:
If you still have questions about ChatGPT and whether it’s safe for kids, here’s a parents’ guide from my team.
It’s not always easy for young children to connect with long-distance grandparents, but my team put together a few suggestions to help them forge a lasting relationship.