Matt Britton, author of Generation AI, talks about how AI is changing family life and what kids need to thrive. Over-relying on AI risks stunting critical thinking and creativity. Schools are grappling with plagiarism as students use AI to write essays.
AI has become a substantial part of our lives, integrating its way into more than just the tech world. Joining us live right now is Matt Britton, the author of Generation AI. And Matt, thank you so much for joining us. You know firsthand how AI works in the family unit, in particular to the effects that it has on teenagers. Tell us more about that.
Absolutely. Well, the truth is, and first of all, thanks for having me. The truth is we're still every day finding out what the true impact is going to be of AI in a household of children and how their learning development unfolds over time. Because it's also new. I mean, ChatGPT itself only came out a couple of years ago. Now. It's sort of like a verb and, you know, in the everyday popular lexicon. But the reality is things have moved so fast and we're still trying to wrap our arms around what the consequences of this is going to be.
How does AI exposure at a very young age influence teen mental health and social development and what you've seen?
Well, I think there's a lot of, obviously there's a lot of benefit. I am an optimist. I think over time is going to be good for society. But I do think it's not going to be without its drawbacks, especially in the short term. In terms of children, you know, there's a question of if AI is going to take away their need or desire to develop critical thinking skills and creativity and problem solving skills, because there'll be sort of a predisposition just to use, you know, an AI tool to solve problems. The reality is the skill sets that are going to be needed in the workforce moving forward are completely different than what they are today. So it's going to be more important than ever before that children and young adults do embrace the ability to critically think or else they're going to find themselves really lost in this new world.
You don't see it being lazing of the mind, so to speak, because it's going, as you say, a whole new skill set.
Yeah, a new skill set. I mean, I think in the short term you're going to find that AI through automation will eliminate a lot of jobs. But over time, what you're going to start to see is AI is going to make companies a lot more efficient and once they have more cash flow, they're going to pour that into new innovations. And when they do, they're going to be looking to Gen Alpha, who's now age 0 to 15, who will be the first generation to grow up with the AI in a household to fill some of those skill gaps and needs. And again, those skill gaps and needs are widely different than the skill skill sets of yesterday. And the skills of the yesterday was largely about memorizing facts and then regurgitating those facts. But facts are what's becoming a commodity in this new world. It really comes down to those soft skills and what's going to make somebody really impactful as a citizen, as a member, in the family and obviously in the workforce.
Great point. And the old argument about screen time. How should parents manage screen time and access to AI for teens?
Yeah, I mean, that's a tricky one. So Apple itself has pretty sophisticated tools that allow parents to monitor screen time as well as restrict screen time. There's also a bunch of third party tools out there like Life360 that do the same thing. But AI is a new phenomenon. And where there's a will, there's a way, especially with teenagers. So you can try to create guardrails for them, but you also have to raise them knowing that they're going to have constant access to AI the day they walk out the door. And understanding how to help guide them through this whole new experience they're going to have as humans is going to be critical for parents.
You know, and another thing, real quickly, if we can touch on fairly quickly, red flags, are you seeing any changes in terms of identity behavior after teens are using AI for extended periods?
We haven't really seen that yet. If you speak to teachers, they'll say they continue to be worried about plagiarism and again, kids not doing the work. But we haven't seen any data that's showing that AI is necessarily having harmful impact on young adults and children. But obviously, as I mentioned earlier, remains to be seen. It's also new.
Okay. And then lastly, future trends that you're seeing with this, and you've touched on so much already.
One trend I have my eye on is voice. So for years we've been sort of frustrated with Siri and Alexa because they weren't reliable and kind of created some frustrating situations for a lot of consumers. But now with the power of AI infused in some of these voice technologies, it is truly lifelike. There's nearly 100% accuracy and you can talk to an AI model that sounds exactly like a human voice and have pretty deep conversations, which is both exciting and scary at the time. Same.
Yeah. And we've heard some of the negative ramifications of that as well. We are out of time, but I want to thank you, Matt Britton for taking time out tonight. Talking about a very important topic right now, AI and teens. You take good care.
