Raising our Children in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Faith & Science Conversation
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How are we to educate our children in the age of AI? Will we just plug in our children to AI making them zombie scribes for their AI master? Or do we raise our children to be well rounded resilient, critical, creative thinkers that are emotionally intelligent with the ability to constantly grow and thrive while utilizing AI as a tool to advance human consciousness and society to greater levels?

We need to understand the relationship between our consciousness and AI. Human consciousness can be considered to be composed of the mind, the emotional (experiential) body and the spiritual minds. AI models only the mind with logical language and math cognitive processing that ultimately will be more intelligent and capable than most humans. The emotional body represents emotional and instinctual intelligence composed of experiential phenomena like love. The emotional body is directly linked to the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind represents an intuitive intelligence, deriving purpose, moral discernment and inspiration from a higher plane of existence that transcends simple rational understanding.

The first 8 years of life are known to be critical for the developing childā€™s brain where the majority of the brains neuronal network connective wiring between different regions of the brain (known as the connectome) is formed creating the foundation for our learning process that will go on through life. The greater the connective integration within the brain between different regions, the greater the complex processing that can occur generating higher levels of consciousness. The integration between the mind, the experiential body and the spiritual mind can lead to a higher level of conscious processing.

We have an exponentially advancing technological society that focuses our childrenā€™s education on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). AI is already outperforming many human work functions and will likely replace a good portion of the working population. While some parents would like their child to be the next Elon, Jobs or Gates the vast majority of our students will be outperformed by AI in many capacities that now require higher STEM education. STEM education focuses on developing the rational mind while not developing the creative and emotional intelligent mind nor developing the higher intuitive spiritual mind that would lead to a more wholesome creative, adaptive and emotionally intelligent individual that will thrive in the AI age.

The early child brain educational environment should be structured to optimize the full connectivity between the mind, experiential body mind and the intuitive spiritual mind. Integrating critical thinking with the emotional and intuitive creative minds. The emotional mind develops by engaging the student in creative processes like art, dance, music, cursive writing, gardening and even animal husbandry and encouraging cooperative not competitive group social interaction emphasizing love and empathy. Education should not indoctrinate but empower a fully developed human being with the enhanced ability to grow and expand through their life. It is the spirit and emotional mind that separate us from the cold cognitive processing of AI and these should be fostered and developed in the AI age for humanity to progress.

It would be best to try to keep technology especially AI, away from the developing child and focus on reading, writing, cooperative social group interaction and the creative arts allowing the brains wiring to wholly integrate.

The sciences and technology can be introduced later from which a better equipped and developed brain can better utilize the technology. Technology externalizes cognitive processes, imagination and the creative processes. While books art, music, dancing, health and wellness, social activity, storytelling and mythology, free exploration and outdoor play time (hopefully in nature) all generate internal creative connectivity within the brain. As the child develops, they will begin to show dispositions toward certain interests and focus more on the development of that part of mind (cognitive, emotional or spirit). Focusing early education on the creative development and arts will build an integrated foundation which would allow the childā€™s development to achieve higher levels and to live a more fulfilling life. Raising a child in an enriching not indoctrinating environment will empower them in the AI age.

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AI is a tool that can be used well or destructively. Iā€™ve seen some amazing applications for education, but it requires trained educators knowing how to use the tools. I think AI content and interaction will prove to be like many other technological advances. You canā€™t just stick your kids in front of a tv and expect them to learn. You wonā€™t be able to stick them in front of an AI assistant and expect them to learn either. There are plenty of studies that support limiting young childrenā€™s screen time and keeping kids off social media for a whole host of social and cognitive development reasons. I think that is probably more the key than ā€œavoiding AI.ā€

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At the moment AI is a tool that browses the internet or imputed data really fast and then generates a response from it. Itā€™s also wrong all the time. It can tell the difference between contradictory data really. It seems to often pull from just a handful of sources per response. Itā€™s far from replacing teachers.

Can it be ā€œbrain rotā€ for a child? Sure just like the internet can be in general. Parents will still have to monitor and guide their kids. Other kids will still help sharpen, or dull, over another. Educated people tend to fact check it. They use it to move quickly through data to know which points to double check more quickly. Smart phones can be a tool or a handicap for people too. Same as a calculator. Will it cone with a new set of challenges? To me I see it as older challenges packaged differently.

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Did you hear about the student who sued for her tuition back after catching her professor using ChatGPT to generate course material? Northeastern college student demanded her tuition fees back after catching her professor using OpenAIā€™s ChatGPT

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Thank you Christy! Your insight is very valuable. ( Lol As a disclosure I have not used AI in generating my post!). AI is learning and evolving very quickly we are all playing catchup to it. Would you be able to expand on what you think the role of AI and computers should be in educating our children? First of all what do you think is the overall goal of educating our children in the US ? (I know that is a loaded question at the moment but seriously what is it?) How do you see AI and computers being beneficial in the education of the child? How soon (age) do you see introducing the child to any screen time? Computer? AI? What do you see as the potential drawbacks of the use of computer or AI to the child versus the organic approach of real human. Interaction?

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Thank you! Your insight is very valuable. can I ask you the same questions? Would you be able to expand on what you think the role of AI and computers should be in raising our children? First of all what do you think is the overall goal of educating our children in the US? (lol) How do you see AI and computers being beneficial in the education of the child? How soon (age) do you see introducing the child to any screen time? Computer? AI? What do you see as the potential drawbacks of the use of computer or AI to the child versus the organic approach of real human. Interaction? Do you see that the young 1-8 year old child would develop the same using technology and Ai as they would focusing more on the arts, mind body attunement, social interactions, verbal development and using books instead of computers? How do you think a child would differ in development using computers from early age versus the ā€œorganicā€ approach?

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Conspiracies have you believing AI is inherantly capable of abstract moral thought (which it is not) and also that its bad for learning.

Both of the above tennants are false.

You need to stop listening to conspiracies that stem from individuals who have mental issues.

I 100% agree with Christy on this one.

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The fact you are typing here in a web browser refutes your claim there amigoā€¦you are using right now in reading and rrsponding to responses to your post!

AI is not what you appear to think it is.

Btw, have you ever wondered how google advertising seems to flood your screen with adds that just so happen to align with things you purchased recently, how dynamic digital street advertising signage change to dispoay adds relevsnt to you as you drive past them (yes these signs are capable of this using the exact same technology as you mobile phone browser does). Its AI!

We are in an age of convenienceā€¦thats one of the principles AI leverages. It then seeks to present relevant information to us in a form that is personalā€¦its not all bad.

If we do not check the url references that are displayed right alongside the responses, then who are the idiots here, AI or the reader who doesnt verify the sources AI always quotes? We need to teach our children how to do thatā€¦its the same in everything in lifeā€¦its not unique to AI.

(I have a background in web server management, and web hostingā€¦im no dummy to this)

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Thank you! I do not believe that AI is capable of thought per se moral or otherwise or even sentient but maybe it will be. I am merely trying to understand how we can best use AI to advance human conciousness and out society. would you be able to answer these questions. Would you be able to expand on what you think the role of AI and computers should be in educating our children? First of all what do you think is the overall goal of educating our children in the US ? (I know that is a loaded question at the moment but seriously what is it?) How do you see AI and computers being beneficial in the education of the child? How soon (age) do you see introducing the child to any screen time? Computer? AI? What do you see as the potential drawbacks of the use of computer or AI to the child versus the organic approach of real human. Interaction?

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  • With or without refreshments or food?
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I am on my way to the airportā€¦i will respond briefly on my phone

The single biggest drawback is easy access to both good and bad and the privacy act.

Individuals, incl children seem to enjoy an unrealistic right to privacyā€¦when parents are restricted from oversight, i believe problems stem from that.

Also, AI presents to the young child a level of seemingly trusting responses. It is designed to be personableā€¦mimicking human. This i think is inherantly dangerous for young trusting minds.

Beyond informed and consistemt oversight by parents/gardians and child education from early on, i dont have a better solution to that dilemma.

The unfortunate thing is, covenience of technology breeds in us all i think, bad habits of letting the technology monitor and protectā€¦we become slaves to our own desires for the convenient fast lane (myself included)

i am a slave to that problem in that i cant be bothered remembering passwords (automatically store and insert them from cloud/device account librariesā€¦wallets as you know them), i bypass any imstallations that arent fully automated, i cant be bothered waiting.

This does raise a pet hate of mine (might seem offtopic)ā€¦

It really peeves me off that governmemts will not mandate gps speed limiters on all motor vehicles with realtime anti tampering monitoring. We do not need speed cameras or checksā€¦this can all be directly controlled autonomously now. Where gps is not working, google map area and time restrictions defaults should apply to the vehicles own systems. We already have everythijg we need to do thisā€¦even to older vehicles.

We can already use even curbside triggers to automate speed settings even for old vehicles where only limited electronics can be reasonably installed. ā€œFly by wireā€ throttle systems technologies are readily available and quite cheeply installed on even very old vehiclesā€¦this can be connected with a gps/map based controller no problem.

For older vehicles that dont have any electronics, standard configurations should applyā€¦its absolutely doable.

Sorry, my love of technology and geekiness have taken over now and ive gone a bit off track.

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no doubt that these are the babysitters of our time. But are they beneficial for our Childs development?? First of all what do you think is the overall goal of educating our children in the US ? (I know that is a loaded question at the moment but seriously what is it?) ia it so that they are just able to get a job and be useful citizens? What future are we preparing our children for?

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I have made a commemt about nature of education bdfore on these forumsā€¦(my profession 20 years ago was a high school teacher)

The basis of education is indoctrination. We are indoctrinated simply because it is mandated and, government policy ultimately determines the curriculum.

Sounds terrible i know, but thats the truth of itā€¦we need to choose to bypass the conspiracies and look for the good in that (and i for one do that).

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Donā€™t have an opinion really on most of this. I donā€™t think using AI verses ā€œorganicā€ is an either or situation but uses both.

I think for primary thing we need to teach kids is environmentalism, animal rights along with the typical math, science and history.

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  • Loaded question indeed.
  • Best manager that I ever had in the I.R.S. gave me these two lessons:
    • ā€œYou wouldnā€™t have to work so hard to remember the truth if you had told it the first time.ā€
    • ā€œMake the best decision you can using the information that you know. If, before you hand your work in, you get new and better information, and if you have time, make a better decision, but you werenā€™t hired to just collect information.ā€
  • Worst teacher I ever had was my Algebra teacher in my Freshman year of High School, September 1962. She cured me of any pleasure I had in mathematics. It wasnā€™t until Fall 1976, I think, that I tried to take Beginning Algebra and lucked out getting a Teacher who taught me how fun Algebra could be.
  • College level Basic Statistics teacher taught me that it is possible to teach Statistics rationally and essentially enough to pass any entry level Government Statistics test with a really good score.
  • My take away: In the early 1990s, I was assigned to teach a 6-week beginning Revenue Agent Course to new hirees. On my first day, I promised to teach the nervous students:
    • First and foremost, what they needed to pass the course and keep their job;
    • Second, what they needed to do the job that they would eventually do, if there was any time in class.
    • Third, extra stuff, fun facts, and trivia, if there was any time in class.
  • Iā€™d be surprised if AI could replace my teachers.
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I think AI tools and computers are like books. They can be a vehicle of learning and information presentation, but a human teacher needs to be guiding the process, interacting with the student about the material and deciding how and when they fit into a larger learning experience. I think there has been a lot of alarmism and a lot of overly hyped idealism when it comes to AI in education and the future is probably somewhere in the middle. My husband works in educational technology and Iā€™ve been working in translation training, so weā€™ve had quite a few professional development and community of practice sessions that have focused on the topic. Here is a thought provoking Ted talk by the founder of Kahn Academy. I think he is on the overly idealistic end of the spectrum, but I also think itā€™s important to hear out both sides.

What is it indeed. My personal goals for educating my own children were to equip them to be ethical, empathetic, problem solvers who make the world a better place and can function appropriately in society. Not sure the society is such that ethical thinking people function very well in it though at the moment. My kids are going to the US for college, but I donā€™t know that they will end up staying there. They arenā€™t really fans at the moment.

As far as screen time, I think the amount of time and the task they are doing and whether it is active or passive is the important thing to consider. My third grader learned to code on MITā€™s scratch and spent a lot of time in elementary school Minecraft modding and as an 18 year old he can now program in 4 computer languages and read journal articles in computer science. There are any number of educational apps that can help very young children with basic literacy skills. Audio books that highlight words as a text is read out loud or have other interactive features can be very useful for beginning readers, especially kids with dyslexia. I donā€™t think itā€™s a good approach to think kids should be sheltered from all technology until a certain age. Even ordering at McDonaldā€™s requires using a touch screen and developing those screen interface mastery skills from a young age is now as important as print awareness used to be when all we had was physical books. I donā€™t think itā€™s an either/or with computers/AI and human teachers. I think parents and teachers should be equipping children with the skills to use technology well and be discerning about digital content and develop good habits about moderated dependence on technology so they can avoid addictions and avoid letting others do the thinking they should be doing with their own brains. Also I think when people say ā€œAIā€ they mean lots of different things. LLMs can do more than just write papers for cheating college students, and some of what they can do can be really helpful for learners. For example, my college-age daughter is studying applied health and has to read a lot of technical scientific articles for classes like genetics. She finds it very helpful to read an article, and then read an AI summary of the article and then go back and re-read the parts she doesnā€™t think she understood well. Thatā€™s basically how she survived her genetics and epidemiology courses.

We use AI tools in training to take workshops that were taught in-person and make summary videos we can use to develop online self-paced courses. To be effective, a human has to teach the original workshop, edit the AI generated transcripts and organize the AI video modules into a coherent lesson plan, and a human has to facilitate the course and give students feedback. But the AI tools can save us a lot of time and be part of producing a quality product. I think the minefield is getting teachers to use AI as an asset for their own brains and expertise, not as a replacement. AI does really well adapting good content that was created by smart and trustworthy humans and making it more tailored to a specific audience, or summarizing it, or reformatting it for a different platform. It is not a replacement for human expertise and it canā€™t vet sources for you, so you canā€™t just ask the internet things and not know where your information is coming from and assume itā€™s good.

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Or develop an AI that operates with the Socratic method, so it doesnā€™t inform the child or provide information, but challenges the child to find information.

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I would claim that the real change has already happened. It started when kids got smartphones and addictive computer games. Adding AI to these technologies is just turning the drug to a more addictive form.

I have watched the change in the life of children from the time before personal computers and mobile phones to this day. First as a peer, then as a parent and today mainly through the discussions with the parents, teachers, supervisors and healthcare professionals living with the children.

I am not saying that the modern technologies, like smartphones or personal computers, are somehow bad, with or without the AI. These technologies are very useful but they have side effects. They are so addictive that a large proportion of children rather sit and stay in front of the screens than participate in social activities outdoors.

Before this kind of technology, we kids spent much of our time with our friends outdoors, being active and innovating all kinds of things - sometimes very stupid and dangerous things but ā€˜made by usā€™, not something copied from what can now be seen on screens. The pace of life was relatively slow and most kids could concentrate on the tasks they were given for longer than what is typical today. Knowledge accumulated through life experience was valued.

With the computer games and smartphones, the screens replaced much of the previous activities. Most children move too little and suffer therefore from obesity and poor physical condition, even to the point that poor physical condition is counted as one factor explaining the worsening statistics in learning. There is a strengthening division between those that learn well and those that get low grades, the proportion of pupils getting average scores have declined. Some teachers even tell that the ā€˜Gaussian bell curveā€™ has turned to ā€˜bell pitā€™.
Social life turned to internet, social bubbles in the net partly replaced social circles in the physical life. Especially children that are introverts or suffer from bullying can find tolerable company easier from the net than the physical world.
The duration of attention has shortened with an associated increase in children that have a diagnosis of adhd - at least some of these diagnoses are mislead, the children are just adapted to a different kind of world.
Life experience is not valued like before because the old people are slow with technology, youngsters can find the information they want easier and faster from the net than by asking from the older persons.
Parents cannot keep anymore barriers to unwanted information because the kids can get all the information they want from the net. It does not help if the parents restrict access to unwanted net pages because the kids can get access to these pages through their friends. The police visits elementary schools to inform parents about the reality that the parents do not know, what kind of net pages their 8-10-year old kids may be watching. 7-8 years old might still be relatively innocent but after that, kids jump to a world that contains much bad things.

I could continue but the point is that the world has changed within the last 50 years so much that the kids live now in a completely different reality than the kids 50-60 years ago. The children adapt to their growing environment. AI does not change that basic pattern - kids will adapt, those having difficulties will be the adults that have been adapted to a different kind of world.

The parents of small kids are an example of the addictive power of technology. Take the smartphones and computers away from the parents and the reactions may be even stronger than with the kids - we have been addicted to the screen life so badly that we may get bad withdrawal symptoms if we do not get our daily technological dose. It is possible, even likely, that we will be as addicted to AI in the future.

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If the major change has already happened (as I claim in my above comment), then we already have some experience of what will work and what should be avoided in the age of AI.
The strategies that support children in the current situation can and should be used after the AI is implemented more broadly. AI is just an improvement (update) of the sophisticated tools that have already been used.

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Thank you Christy! I appreciate your insight on the AI and the work that you and your husband are doing. I am not against the use of AI in education at all. It has incredible potential to advance humanity and our society but also risks to degrade humanity. All depends on how we use it for sure. Like all technology we attain, we must also develop the wisdom to use correctly. That is wonderful about your children exceptional accomplishments you should be very proud of them and the path that they are on. I agree with you generally about the goal of our education system. however, It seems that there is not as much consensus in the educational community on the overall goals of education whether to get a student ready for college?, to prepare for workforce? To create well rounded critical thinking functional and productive citizens? it doesnā€™t seem that we have a well considered goal particularly in the age of AI.

Thank you for the Khan Ted talk. I do think that using AI for individual student tutoring particularly using the socratic method will have incredible benefit to educating the student on certain subjects. With that I suggest that we look at the relationship of AI to human consciousness. I know we all define consciousness differently) but I like to define consciousness as cognitive intelligence emotional intelligence and intuitive (spiritual) intelligence. AI just models the cognitive mind processes but has no emotional or intuitive intelligence. If we focus on STEM and developing the cognitive mind early on (whether using AI computers or not while not developing the childs emotional and intuitive intelligence the child will develop deficient in these areas and it will be difficult for them to recover that deficiency through life. On the other hand if we focus on developing the emotional and intuitive intelligence in early childhood the child particularly with the use of AI tutors a little later around 8 years old will have a foundation that is likely to be much more capable to adapt to a quickly changing world and more likely to achieve a more fulfilling and purposeful life of continued growth -cognitively, emotionally and spiritually.

If we focus only on the development of the cognitive mind ā€œleft brain :)ā€ these children may have reduced social emotional and intuitive intelligence. It is well understood These first 8 years are essential to the brains development creating the essential wiring forming the foundation for future learning and growth. (Give me the child for 7 years and I will show you the man). Encouraging imagination. creativity and visualization focus on on using art ,dance , music storytelling. person to person interaction, co-operative groups will better develop the emotional and intuitive intelligence over the first 7-8 years. After which the child can be more exposed to STEM in which the AI tutors will be valuable for independent achievement depending on their predispositions.

It used to be where we encouraged individuals to be well rounded with a strong background in the humanities. I always smile about all the science classes I took in college the humanities classes had the greatest impact on my work and life. Many of the mathematically brilliant engineers I knew quickly got into management removed from practicing all their engineering skills and more utilizing their human emotional intelligence and ultimately creative visionary and intuitive (think steve jobs) abilities and we all know many brilliant ā€œleft brainā€ individuals that have little emotional and spiritual intelligence. Now with Ai it will not take a college degree to be able to code at the entry level so these other creative emotional and intuitive skills will become more valuable to a company. Just something to Think about! :slight_smile:

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