AI Developer: How I'm Preparing My Young Son

Plenty of parents these days are worried about artificial intelligence and how it might affect how their children learn. But what about a parent who also happens to be an AI developer? "Even I have trepidations," writes Soulaiman Itani in a New York Times op-ed. The single father of a 4-year-old son agrees with concerns that "large language models tend to short-circuit a child's thinking processes with easy, unearned answers." What remedies is he taking?

• Itani plans to let his son use ChatGPT and other tools eventually. "But when I do, I plan to show him how to fact-check the sources the A.I. has provided, and make sure he understands that computers often 'learn' the wrong thing from online sources."
• In terms of education, "I've looked to teaching philosophies that encourage students to ask their own questions and design their own investigations." Schools, he adds, "should encourage projects that require students to develop reasoned solutions to real world problems."
• At home, that translates into playtime that incorporates improvisation: Itani comes up with scenarios to challenge his son's imagined superheroes and villains.

Read the full essay for more.