Matt Britton, author of Generation AI, discusses how kids are using ChatGPT to skip schoolwork and what parents should actually worry about. The real skill isn't using AI, it's learning to write good prompts, which still requires reading and writing practice. He shares practical examples: recipe suggestions from fridge photos, AI-generated coloring pages, family songs from Suno.
Okay, before I read this intro, I just have to tell you that I had Chat GPT write it in honor of what we're about to discuss. Okay, so here it is. Today we're joined by author and youth marketing expert Matt Britton to talk about how AI is shaping the next generation. The topic of his new book, the AI Generation. How did ChatGPT do?
I think they did pretty good.
It's kind of scary.
The only thing is the name of the book is Generation AI.
Oh, okay. See, so you always have to check.
You have to always check. You never know.
Check it.
Yeah.
All right, let's get right to it, because I have two boys who are generation Alpha and I think about this stuff all the time. How are teenagers using this in their everyday lives?
Well, I mean, teenagers obviously see ChatGPT as an opportunity to not have to do the work that they had to do before that. And I think there's obviously an opportunity and a danger there. You know, you want kids to develop those critical thinking skills, the creativity, the problem solving skills are going to be so very important in leading in tomorrow's workforce. Right. But at the same time, you also want them to get their hands on this incredible technology, but not to the extent that doesn't force them to actually learn. So it is a balancing act as a parent to make sure kids are using this the right way.
I've given this so much thought, right, because is there some intrinsic value to the 5 paragraph essay? Like was that doing something magical to develop young brains or was that also formulaic?
Well, I do think it does something that is important for the developing brains. You know, the process of writing an essay and formulating your thoughts allows you to go through the process of forming opinions, forming your own thoughts, forming the way that you communicate. I can tell you that after writing a book, it helped me become a better communicator. And I'm not a kid anymore, right? So I do think it's important. But at the same time, there's so many things that we do in everyday life that are mundane, that are not strategic, that are not things that are aspirational that I can kind of disintermediate for you and allow you to be more productive human being.
Is it cheating? For example, this past week, my 15 year old had to hand in summaries of all five acts of Romeo and Juliet.
Okay.
And he used the ChatGPT to help summarize that rather than going to the source material.
Did he disclose it to the teacher?
Heck no. Disclose it to the teacher. No, but everyone is doing it. I understand that he rewrote them. Right. Like, that's also part of it. Because kids, they have other apps that dirty up the responses they get from ChatGPT.
Right. That make it undetectable.
Right?
Yes. There are plenty of apps out there that allow you to fool whoever wants to know that this wasn't written by a. I think it's up to the teacher to actually have rules and guidelines for kids in terms of, here's where you should use it here, where you shouldn't. You think about something like Wikipedia. When that first came out, we had the same conversation. Right. And Wikipedia is plagiarism. If you're copying and pasting it where I. It is kind of a gray area because it is really taking trillions of different points of data from the Internet and piecing together something that is somewhat original. So it's unlike anything we've ever experienced before.
And what I've found is there's the art of the prompt.
Yes.
And that seems like it's going to be the job of the future.
The prompting is incredibly important. Having context and being thorough. But again, prompting is communication. So if you don't understand how to think in the right way to create the right prompt, you're not going to get the most out of AI. And the way that you go through the thinking process of creating Gray Pump is by reading, is by writing. So I think those are still incredibly important traits that students are going to have to embrace regardless of the power of AI.
Okay, I know it's early in the morning, but I'm going to ask you to go deep here. Are you worried about the brains of the next? The kids who are in kindergarten right now developing, are they going to be different?
So Gen Alpha is distinct and they're ages 0 to 15. So both of your kids do fall in the Gen Alpha as the first generation to grow up with AI in the household. And that's really going to reframe humanity in a lot of ways. Because if you think about it, one of the powers of AI is it allows you to interact with technology like you interact with a human. And for developing young brains, as they start to create relationships with AI, in some cases intimate relationships, we're going to be entering unchartered territory as parents and as kids, and something that, frankly, is unprecedented.
I am so scared. But it's also exhilarating because I can.
Go, way to put it.
Yesterday I FaceTimed, okay, I used ChatGPT. A young person at work here taught me how to do it. I showed it what was in my refrigerator and it told me the recipes that I could use. Incredible, right?
You can take a picture of Legos, like a bunch of Legos, and say, what can I make from this? And I'll make it from you. For parents of kids, some cool things you can do is there's a tool called Suno AI S u N o where you can actually make up songs. You can make up songs about a family trip or a vacation or a cool experience you had. You can take photos of a family and you can turn it into a coloring book page for your kids. You can come up with interesting trivia and quizzes from AI So there's lots of ways where you can interject AI into family dynamics. That's very productive and fun and actually allows your kids to learn along the way.
Fun, scary, exhilarating. And you should read this book. You've got to read this book. Generation AI. Thank you so much.
