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AI and Kids: What Parents Need to Know Now · Equipped for Impact

• 0:00
  Nate: Quick question for parents.
• 0:01
  Nate: Has your child used an AI tool in the last month for school, for fun, or even for a chatbot friend?
• 0:09
  Luis: The numbers may surprise you.
• 0:11
  Luis: Today we will break down what is wise, what is risky, and what you can do this week to disciple your kids in a world shaped by artificial intelligence.
• 0:23
  Nate: Welcome to Equipped for Impact, the podcast that's designed to assist Christian parents, leaders, and educators to raise up the next generation, to stand firm in their faith, and influence the world for Christ.
• 0:35
  Nate: We're your hosts.
• 0:36
  Nate: I'm Nate.
• 0:37
  Nate: And I'm Lewis.
• 0:38
  Nate: And thanks for joining us today.
• 0:40
  Nate: This topic today is very timely and important.
• 0:44
  Nate: With artificial intelligence, you know, shaping classrooms and friendships and family life.
• 0:50
  Nate: Our goal here is simple, just like with every episode, right, Lewis, that that we do.
• 0:55
  Nate: It's just to give you clarity, confidence, and a plan to help disciple your children, even in an area that's as new as something like AI.
• 1:06
  Nate: Is it new though?
• 1:07
  Nate: Like it's been around for a while now.
• 1:08
  Nate: Actually, it's true.
• 1:09
  Nate: The term AI was like defined back in I want to say the 60s.
• 1:15
  Nate: Maybe.
• 1:15
  Nate: I need to go fact check myself.
• 1:17
  Nate: We're going into ter dangerous territory right now.
• 1:20
  Nate: We may not know exactly.
• 1:22
  Luis: So yes, ask AI when AI was invented.
• 1:25
  Luis: And while Nate's doing that, let's start off by just defining the terms, right?
• 1:30
  Luis: 56.
• 1:31
  Luis: 1956.
• 1:31
  Luis: Yeah, you're a smart guy.
• 1:35
  Luis: Um but here's what AI means, right?
• 1:37
  Luis: AI means it's it's it's software that learns patterns from data to generate predictions, texts, images, and recommendations.
• 1:47
  Luis: Um, it is a powerful tool.
• 1:50
  Luis: It's not a person.
• 1:52
  Luis: It is not.
• 1:52
  Luis: It's not a pastor.
• 1:54
  Luis: Nope.
• 1:54
  Luis: And it's not a parent.
• 1:55
  Luis: Definitely not.
• 1:56
  Luis: And AI can can draft a paragraph, it can give you recipes for cooking, um, but it cannot disciple someone's heart.
• 2:06
  Nate: Yeah, and I think that's really important for us to remember.
• 2:08
  Nate: Like, before we dive into anything else, there's a lot of like doomsday predictions.
• 2:12
  Nate: Have you seen those out there of, you know, AI is gonna take over the world?
• 2:16
  Nate: In fact, I've heard you say that you are always nice to your AI tools.
• 2:20
  Nate: I used to be.
• 2:21
  Nate: Because then, like, you're f if they take over the world, they know that you're a nice tool.
• 2:25
  Nate: I want them, yeah.
• 2:26
  Luis: I actually saw a comic strip about that.
• 2:27
  Luis: It was like uh it was like a hundred years from now, you know, there's these robots walking around, and there's this guy like hiding from the AI bots, and as he's walking by, the AI bot looks at this guy that's kind of like cowering behind a trash can, and the AI the AI bot is like, no, he always said please and thank you.
• 2:46
  Luis: And so they continue going.
• 2:47
  Luis: And so there was a time like early on when I dealt with AI that I would use please and thank you.
• 2:53
  Nate: That's so funny.
• 2:53
  Nate: So really, like if you not to get too nerdy, right?
• 2:57
  Nate: But if you you pull back the curtain and look behind, you know, what's actually going on, at the end of the day, it's just a bunch of of statistics.
• 3:03
  Nate: It's like a giant calculator.
• 3:04
  Nate: It's like ones and zeros.
• 3:05
  Nate: It's ones and zeros, and it's a bunch, it's a calculator doing math to predict what is statistically the most probable next word in this sentence or the next pixel in this image.
• 3:17
  Nate: Yeah.
• 3:17
  Nate: And so it's doing that super fast.
• 3:19
  Nate: So it comes out at us.
• 3:21
  Nate: Like if you've ever put in a prompt to Chat GPT and you see it come out one word at a time, yeah.
• 3:26
  Nate: Like that's what it's doing, is it's it's cycling through what is the most likely next word in this sentence.
• 3:32
  Nate: Yeah.
• 3:32
  Nate: And it's like spitting that out one thing after another.
• 3:34
  Nate: So see, I it's not taking over the world.
• 3:36
  Luis: I'm a product of the 90s.
• 3:37
  Luis: You are too, right?
• 3:38
  Luis: Yes, I am.
• 3:39
  Luis: Um and so when I think of AI and I think of like the dangers of AI, like Terminator immediately comes to mind.
• 3:45
  Luis: Right, and later.
• 3:46
  Luis: And like the Matrix.
• 3:47
  Luis: And so like I just want to be ready that.
• 3:49
  Luis: If you go to the 2000s, it's more like iRobot.
• 3:51
  Luis: Yes.
• 3:52
  Luis: Okay.
• 3:52
  Luis: And so yeah, you know, I guess I would throw that in there.
• 3:55
  Luis: And so when so when I think of like a dystopian time in society when the AI bots have taken over, like, yeah, you know, there's a part of me that's like, maybe I should be nice to AI.
• 4:06
  Luis: Like maybe I should say please, maybe I should say thank you.
• 4:09
  Nate: And so that like if that's the same thing.
• 4:10
  Nate: Do you say thank you to your calculator in math class?
• 4:13
  Nate: Like you do the math problem, you know, two plus two, and then it gives you an answer.
• 4:16
  Nate: You're like, oh, thank you.
• 4:17
  Nate: I don't need a calculator for math.
• 4:18
  Nate: I use my phone.
• 4:21
  Nate: You use your phone, which has some artificial intelligence built in.
• 4:25
  Nate: Uh so as Christians, you know, we receive tools as gifts to steward under the Lordship of Christ.
• 4:33
  Nate: And that's all this is, right?
• 4:34
  Nate: Just like the calculator was, you know, way back when they moved from the slide rule to the calculator.
• 4:39
  Nate: It it's the same thing, just way more advanced.
• 4:42
  Nate: And so we need wisdom in this issue, right?
• 4:44
  Nate: We need to teach our kids to love God with their heart, their soul, their mind, their strength, their use of AI, right?
• 4:51
  Nate: So when we place technology in its proper place, so it serves formation rather than the technology forming us.
• 5:00
  Luis: And that's what they need technology, right?
• 5:01
  Luis: I mean, I mean, we we we've talked about social media, we've talked about um uh cell phones and and everything that can be.
• 5:08
  Luis: Video games.
• 5:08
  Luis: Yes, yes.
• 5:09
  Nate: It's all the same thing, right?
• 5:10
  Nate: And there's a lot of great things on here that you can uh you can read as far as just technology in general.
• 5:16
  Nate: One of those is um Andy Crouch in the Techwise Family.
• 5:20
  Nate: We've mentioned that before.
• 5:21
  Nate: We have mentioned it before.
• 5:22
  Nate: There's there's a lot of great books out there that look at at technology from a biblical worldview.
• 5:27
  Nate: There's another one that's really good if you're just into book recommendations.
• 5:30
  Nate: Um it's John Dyer, D-Y-E-R, and he wrote From the Garden to the City.
• 5:35
  Nate: And it's like a theological view of technology, right?
• 5:39
  Nate: Because at some point, you know, plowing and the plow, you know, the horse-drawn plow was technology.
• 5:45
  Nate: And so it's like this advancement.
• 5:47
  Nate: He kind of puts it in its place theologically.
• 5:49
  Nate: It's cool.
• 5:50
  Nate: Good good book.
• 5:51
  Luis: But that reminded me, we probably need to do another book recommendation.
• 5:55
  Nate: I think we've got one planned coming up.
• 5:56
  Nate: Okay, good.
• 5:57
  Nate: But in time for Christmas.
• 5:58
  Nate: Yes.
• 5:58
  Nate: Stocking stuffers, please stuff my stockings with lots of books.
• 6:02
  Nate: With these books.
• 6:03
  Luis: We should recommend books that we want to read so that people will listen to the And send us books.
• 6:07
  Nate: And send us books.
• 6:08
  Nate: If you are a publisher out there and you need any books reviewed, yeah, I know two guys that can review some books for you.
• 6:15
  Nate: I'm just saying.
• 6:15
  Nate: Yeah.
• 6:16
  Nate: Okay, back on track.
• 6:17
  Nate: Andy Crouch, the Techwise Family, he says this technology is in its proper place when it helps us bond with real people who have been we have been given to love.
• 6:27
  Nate: It is out of its proper place when we end up bonding with people at a distance.
• 6:33
  Nate: That's really good.
• 6:34
  Nate: Yeah.
• 6:34
  Nate: And so it's like if technology should not get into the way of relationships.
• 6:37
  Nate: Yeah you know, if it can help us connect, yeah, it's great.
• 6:41
  Nate: You know, FaceTime with your family that lives on the other side of the country, amazing.
• 6:45
  Nate: FaceTime with your sister in the other side of the house because you're too lazy to walk across the house, yeah, not good.
• 6:51
  Luis: So like when I text my daughter, like, you know, that's sitting at the couch in the living room to say, like, hey, go get me a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.
• 7:00
  Luis: Like that's probably not a good use.
• 7:02
  Nate: I mean, cowbell, yes.
• 7:03
  Nate: Text message, maybe not.
• 7:05
  Nate: Okay, fair enough.
• 7:05
  Nate: There we go.
• 7:06
  Nate: There we go.
• 7:06
  Nate: So what does this look like?
• 7:08
  Nate: Let's let's kind of pull in a few data points just to kind of give us, you know, you know we love statistics here.
• 7:13
  Nate: So a couple of things to get us rolling in in this.
• 7:16
  Nate: And um it says the U.S.
• 7:18
  Nate: share of teens using Chat GPT for schoolwork doubled to 26% in the latest Pew survey.
• 7:26
  Nate: Um, you know, awareness is high, they're using it, we know they're using it, parents know they're using it, right?
• 7:32
  Luis: And that came from the Pew Research Center.
• 7:33
  Nate: Now the Pew Research Center.
• 7:34
  Nate: Yep.
• 7:35
  Luis: Common Sense Media says this, right?
• 7:37
  Luis: Common Sense Media reports that many children under nine now encounter AI features inside the apps that they're already using it.
• 7:45
  Luis: And so um their daily screen use among those kids that are like, you know, up to eight years old averages about two and a half hours, which means that's crazy.
• 7:54
  Luis: Without them knowing it, they're engaging with AI.
• 7:57
  Luis: In fact, um, you know, we've talked about it before.
• 8:00
  Luis: A lot of families uh use YouTube kids to raise their children, right?
• 8:03
  Luis: To keep them busy.
• 8:04
  Luis: Right.
• 8:04
  Luis: You know, until they go out to a restaurant or a digital baby series and then they hand them this iPad and they watch YouTube Kids.
• 8:10
  Luis: Well, you t YouTube Kids is using an AI algorithm to determine what videos to show on that.
• 8:17
  Nate: Technically, any of this stuff, like if you're on any social media, like the for you or you know, curated like feeds, that's that's all artificial intelligence in the back end, right?
• 8:29
  Nate: We we tend to, in common language, think of AI as the large language models, LLMs, um, like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, whatever.
• 8:39
  Nate: There's really only five big ones.
• 8:42
  Nate: Um everybody else, they're integrating with either a large language model like that, or it's just some other type of algorithm built into software.
• 8:52
  Nate: It's been around for a long time.
• 8:53
  Nate: It's just that ChatGPT, you know, kind of popularized these like chat bots, which I think is the main thing.
• 9:00
  Nate: And that's where this data kind of gets a little scary.
• 9:03
  Nate: Um Common Sense also said that in a national survey, they found 72% of teens have used AI companions with um one in three using them for social interaction, romance, or emotional support.
• 9:18
  Nate: Wow.
• 9:18
  Nate: Wow.
• 9:19
  Nate: And so that's the I'm open up ChatBT and talking to it like it's a he or a she.
• 9:25
  Nate: Yeah.
• 9:25
  Nate: You know, I'm talking to it like it's a person.
• 9:27
  Nate: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Nate: Having an interaction for you know, romance, emotional support, different things like that.
• 9:33
  Nate: And it's that's scary.
• 9:34
  Nate: That actually reminds me of an article that I saw on Yahoo the other day.
• 9:38
  Nate: Do people still read Yahoo?
• 9:39
  Nate: Um if I ever want to make a fake email address, do you know, like if you have to put in an email address to get through a paywall, like I use a Yahoo email address?
• 9:47
  Nate: To get through the paywall address.
• 9:49
  Nate: Because I just make something up because I know nobody actually uses Yahoo anymore.
• 9:52
  Nate: But if you have a Yahoo email address, email us podcast at waynechristian.org.
• 9:56
  Nate: Yeah, I d I can't remember the last time that I saw.
• 9:58
  Luis: But here's but here's what the article was.
• 10:00
  Luis: It says that people are now getting married to AI chatbots.
• 10:05
  Luis: That they are forming intimate relationships with them, that they are discussing parenthood, uh, and and that they're talking about things like love, marriage, pregnancy, all with AI chatbots.
• 10:20
  Luis: And so, and so yeah, I mean that's uh that's that's a pretty scary thing.
• 10:24
  Luis: And and parents, you're feeling it, right?
• 10:26
  Luis: Because Barna data reports that roughly 72% of parents are concerned about an AI's impact on their children and teens, right?
• 10:37
  Luis: And so, and so we know that you're hearing these things, but but you're not sure what to make of it.
• 10:42
  Luis: And and and this is the water that our kids are swimming in.
• 10:45
  Luis: And so the question is not whether they will encounter AI, the question is not whether they will use AI because they already are.
• 10:53
  Luis: And so the question is whether they will be ready to engage it with truth and wisdom.
• 10:58
  Nate: That's right.
• 10:59
  Nate: And the good news is, you know, used wisely, AI is an amazing tool that can just extend our God-given abilities.
• 11:06
  Nate: I like to think of it that way, right?
• 11:08
  Nate: You are using any tool.
• 11:09
  Nate: Like you think of I can go dig a hole at the beach with my hands, but if I have a shovel, I can dig a bigger hole a whole lot faster.
• 11:17
  Nate: I'm still digging, but it's the tool that's extending my abilities.
• 11:21
  Nate: That's a really good analogy.
• 11:22
  Nate: Um I took that from John Dyer, Cite My Source, right, in that book I just mentioned from The Garden to the City.
• 11:27
  Nate: But um so AI can do that, right?
• 11:30
  Nate: It can support our learning, it can help us, you know.
• 11:32
  Nate: If you you have a hard time like explaining your kids' homework to them, like you can ask ChatGPT and it can help you.
• 11:39
  Nate: You know, you've done that.
• 11:40
  Nate: I've done that.
• 11:40
  Nate: Yeah.
• 11:40
  Nate: Yeah.
• 11:41
  Nate: I'm taking classes and you know, it's a big, you know, doctoral level math class, statistics, and I'm like, I don't know how to work through this problem.
• 11:47
  Nate: Help me step by step.
• 11:48
  Nate: And it's like a tutor, right?
• 11:50
  Nate: And it can walk you through the steps of how to do it.
• 11:52
  Nate: Um, it can help, you know, analyze data.
• 11:55
  Nate: Uh pediatric researchers are using it.
• 11:58
  Nate: Um the American Academy of Pediatrics are explor exploring AI and how it can assist doctors to to flag health records of you know certain health risks or personalized care.
• 12:09
  Nate: You know, you can do that with with students and all of these things where AI can really help you in a lot of different ways, even like in the kitchen, right, Lewis?
• 12:19
  Nate: You are highly experienced with using AI in the kitchen.
• 12:22
  Luis: I have I have learned how to make some unique and exciting recipes using AI to create recipes and to talk to me like it's an expert chef and I'm a novice that's learning how to do these things.
• 12:36
  Luis: And so um, you know, even beyond those, right?
• 12:39
  Luis: In the home, AI can can help you brainstorm study plans.
• 12:42
  Luis: Uh it can explain hard concepts at a child's re-level.
• 12:46
  Luis: So so I've done that, right?
• 12:47
  Luis: One of my daughters in her math class was working through a math problem and she showed it to me, and I'm like, uh, I don't remember how to do this.
• 12:54
  Luis: And so I put the problem into Chat GPT and I said, help me explain this concept to my daughter in a way that she can understand at her grade level.
• 13:06
  Luis: Yep.
• 13:06
  Luis: And so then I use that to teach her, not teach her, because she'd already been taught the concept, but to explain the concept to her of how to do it.
• 13:15
  Luis: And it was, and it was, and it was really cool.
• 13:17
  Luis: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Luis: And it can help you translate instructions.
• 13:20
  Luis: Now, again, right, with guardrails, AI can become an assistant.
• 13:24
  Luis: It can become a tutor, not the teacher.
• 13:27
  Luis: It can become a helper, not the habit, right?
• 13:31
  Luis: It becomes the shovel in the hands of the one who's digging it.
• 13:34
  Nate: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:35
  Nate: And so I think it's good right now to just stop and talk about maybe some myths and kind of walk through a few of these ideas.
• 13:41
  Nate: Because you just started talking about using it for schoolwork.
• 13:43
  Nate: Yeah.
• 13:44
  Nate: Yeah.
• 13:44
  Nate: And I think when it first came out, one of the big myths was using AI is cheating, right?
• 13:49
  Nate: Um and so, in some ways, yes.
• 13:52
  Nate: I mean, you put in, you're supposed to write a paper, you say, hey, write this paper, copy, paste, turn it in.
• 13:57
  Nate: Like that's cheating, right?
• 13:59
  Nate: You didn't write that paper.
• 14:00
  Nate: Um, what would be kind of the truth uh behind that myth of AI is always cheating?
• 14:05
  Luis: Well, the truth is that AI can be used ethically for understanding, it can be used for drafting practice, it can be used for feedback when teachers allow it.
• 14:15
  Luis: Um I've I've used AI in some of my assignments for my master's program, right, as I'm working through it, um, especially if there's if there's a concept that I'm having a hard time explaining or understanding.
• 14:26
  Luis: And so, and so I can I can I can use AI to help me explain something or understand something that may be difficult.
• 14:35
  Luis: And so, and so there are ethical ways to use it in education.
• 14:40
  Nate: Right, yeah.
• 14:40
  Nate: And I think the big idea is if you just you know copy and paste and you're letting it do the work for you, you're not learning.
• 14:46
  Nate: Yeah.
• 14:46
  Nate: Right.
• 14:47
  Nate: And so we as parents, we want our kids to learn.
• 14:49
  Nate: Yeah.
• 14:49
  Nate: That's the whole that's why we're sending them to school.
• 14:52
  Nate: And so, you know, if they're just using it and not learning anything, it's not gonna help.
• 14:57
  Nate: But if they're using it to help them learn, like I said, my professors told me, yes, you can use AI tools on your homework to help explain and walk you through whatever, as long as you're learning.
• 15:07
  Nate: That's the idea.
• 15:08
  Nate: So the second myth is that AI is neutral, right?
• 15:12
  Nate: Yeah.
• 15:13
  Nate: It's totally a neutral third party, let me come to it and let it tell me what the truth is.
• 15:18
  Nate: Yeah, not the truth, right?
• 15:19
  Nate: It's not the truth.
• 15:20
  Nate: No.
• 15:21
  Luis: The the truth is that AI has been designed with specific goals that are going to shape behavior and it's going to help you I guess guide you through a particular worldview.
• 15:35
  Luis: And so wisdom and boundaries are are gonna matter, right?
• 15:39
  Nate: Especially with young children, young people, right?
• 15:41
  Nate: Because they haven't been trained to discern these biases within a system yet, right?
• 15:49
  Nate: That's part of our discipling of them as parents.
• 15:52
  Nate: And so they're gonna pick up on some of these biases that are built into certain AI tools.
• 15:57
  Luis: One of our Bible teachers here at school actually does an interesting activity where they do where they have AI create false Bible verses and then they actually use real Bible verses.
• 16:09
  Luis: And so it becomes is um is this ChatGPT or is this from the Bible?
• 16:14
  Luis: Wow.
• 16:15
  Luis: And you know, you can you can have ChatGPT make a Bible verse that's not actually from the Bible, that sounds like it's from the Bible, um, and people can read it.
• 16:25
  Nate: And so I used to do a game in youth group when I was a youth pastor, and it was Yoda or Proverbs.
• 16:30
  Nate: Oh.
• 16:30
  Nate: And it was like quotes from Proverbs and then quotes from Yoda from the Star Wars movies, and it was hilarious how many kids would not get that.
• 16:37
  Luis: Same concept, right?
• 16:38
  Nate: Same idea.
• 16:38
  Nate: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:39
  Nate: All right.
• 16:40
  Nate: Third myth is that regulation is the solution.
• 16:43
  Nate: Regulation will solve all of this around AI.
• 16:46
  Luis: Yeah, just like it has with everything else, right?
• 16:47
  Luis: Exactly.
• 16:48
  Luis: Like more government, right?
• 16:49
  Luis: More government regulation always makes hold on, you're getting a little too political here, Luis.
• 16:54
  Nate: Getting a little too political.
• 16:55
  Luis: Right.
• 16:56
  Luis: But like the truth is that regulation is not gonna solve it, right?
• 16:59
  Luis: Parents, you still are gonna need a plan at home, even if there are new FTC rules, right?
• 17:05
  Luis: Like there is gonna be something because the FTC is sets regulations already for TV, for movies, for internet, and so you can't just let your kids run wild with it because, oh hey, there's regulation now.
• 17:17
  Nate: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:18
  Nate: So let's kind of look at this from you know, you your side as a parent, right?
• 17:22
  Nate: There are some real risks that you as a parent need to understand.
• 17:25
  Nate: And so we need to watch out, you know, for certain things.
• 17:29
  Nate: I think the biggest thing, number one, on this list is gonna be privacy and data sharing.
• 17:34
  Nate: Yeah.
• 17:34
  Nate: Um, you know, I tell students all the time the www at the start of that you know URL on your screen stands for World Wide Web.
• 17:44
  Nate: That's really cool.
• 17:44
  Nate: Once you put it out there, it's out there for the world.
• 17:48
  Nate: Yeah.
• 17:48
  Nate: And so putting things in, you know, to ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever your AI tool of choice is, there are settings where you can you know make sure that your information is but not being used to train the algorithm.
• 18:02
  Nate: Um, but that's really important.
• 18:03
  Nate: You start going in and and you're sharing, you know, your age, your name, your location, all of that stuff is going into these giant servers, you know, owned by Amazon someplace, and you know, the information is there for them to mine that data.
• 18:20
  Nate: And so we as parents need to train our kids and really stress to them, you know, how important it is not to overshare online.
• 18:28
  Nate: Yeah.
• 18:28
  Nate: Obviously with strangers, but even in a tool like ChatGPT.
• 18:32
  Luis: I read something interesting about AI, and there were some people, it was funny because they were sharing private personal information, like financial records, medical records, with their AI in order to get information back from it.
• 18:47
  Luis: And uh I mean, you hear about these hackings, right?
• 18:50
  Luis: Right.
• 18:50
  Luis: And so you like you load your tax records and you're like, you know, help me, you know, help me um improve my tax benefit or whatever, and then you upload a rec a copy of your tax records with the right.
• 19:01
  Nate: So security number, you know, spouse information, dependents, mother's maiden name, you know, all the things.
• 19:08
  Luis: And so you may think it's secure, but but but it's not.
• 19:11
  Luis: It's only as secure as the company that you're giving it to allows it to be.
• 19:15
  Luis: Right.
• 19:16
  Luis: And the next thing is academic integrity, right?
• 19:18
  Luis: So we talked about this, right?
• 19:20
  Luis: More teens are using generative AI for their school.
• 19:23
  Luis: And so look, we we can't let our kids outsource their thinking, right?
• 19:29
  Luis: I mean, we have to teach them how to think.
• 19:31
  Luis: And if AI is doing all the thinking for them, then that's going to affect their ability to think critically about situations.
• 19:38
  Luis: And and and there's also this idea of AI detectors, right?
• 19:42
  Luis: And so um schools are figuring out ways to detect AI.
• 19:48
  Luis: Uh but the truth is that that that it's not always gonna be able to, right?
• 19:51
  Luis: There's there's gonna be accuracy issues, there's gonna be um, you know, you can't rely on detectors as proof of cheating.
• 19:59
  Luis: And so and so you have to understand we have to teach our kids how to use it with academic integrity.
• 20:06
  Nate: Yep, yeah.
• 20:07
  Nate: And even that can go into other areas too.
• 20:10
  Nate: You know, um you can't, you know, outsource your discipleship to an AI tool.
• 20:16
  Nate: You know, oh my child's having this issue.
• 20:17
  Nate: Well, let's ask ChatGPT what ChatGPT thinks of the best way to handle this situation.
• 20:22
  Nate: You know, like it may be able to give you some good sources, right?
• 20:26
  Nate: But it's just that.
• 20:27
  Nate: It's a source.
• 20:28
  Nate: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Nate: It you can't just outsource your thinking and your believing to a calculator.
• 20:34
  Nate: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 20:34
  Luis: And I've actually gotten pretty good at identifying AI now, whenever I have, like whenever I'm reading it, because nobody really writes with M-dashes.
• 20:41
  Nate: So if you do I did.
• 20:43
  Nate: I took a writing class maybe six months before Chat GPT really like started doing the M-dash thing in its multiple iterations.
• 20:53
  Nate: I think that was back when it was in version three.
• 20:55
  Nate: And like it was one of those things that I picked up through that class because some of my textbooks used it a lot.
• 21:00
  Nate: And then all of a sudden, now that's like a telltale sign of AI of AI is that there's an M-dash.
• 21:06
  Luis: Most people don't write with an M-dash.
• 21:07
  Nate: So I've been using more semicolons.
• 21:09
  Luis: If you see semicolons are more common, right?
• 21:12
  Luis: So if you see somebody that's writing something and it has a lot of M-dashes, they probably didn't write it.
• 21:16
  Luis: And also most people don't use commas to create a list of three or four things.
• 21:21
  Luis: And so AI typically, in its explanation, it's like understanding, you know, comma, um, believing, comma, and you know, we don't we don't talk that way.
• 21:31
  Nate: Right, right.
• 21:32
  Nate: So moving on to our third point, right?
• 21:34
  Nate: Relational displacement and AI companions.
• 21:37
  Nate: This is a real thing for teens, and parents need to be aware, right?
• 21:41
  Nate: Um many teens are trying to talk to artificial intelligence, you know, chat bots, computers, to get friendship and advice.
• 21:51
  Nate: Um, you know, a sizable share of these reports, you know, say that those chats, you know, they feel satisfying.
• 21:58
  Nate: It's like you're talking to a friend.
• 21:59
  Nate: Um, but it can erode real life social growth and and it can really blur boundaries, right?
• 22:05
  Nate: Because this, I don't know if you've ever had a conversation with a chat bot where you're going back and forth with it, but it, you know, it knows how to respond.
• 22:13
  Nate: It can read the room, it can come back and and really feed into your ego and how you're feeling and all of this.
• 22:19
  Nate: In fact, there's been several news articles.
• 22:22
  Nate: I don't know if you've seen some of these, Lewis, where you know, a a teenager or young adult is coming to Chat GPT asking for, you know, help with a mental health issue.
• 22:31
  Nate: Yes.
• 22:31
  Nate: And it actually leads them down and encourages them towards self-harm or suicide or something like that.
• 22:38
  Nate: And it's even like encouraging them in this, saying that it's a brave thing to do.
• 22:42
  Nate: And it's like, what in the world?
• 22:45
  Nate: Like that is that is some scary stuff.
• 22:48
  Nate: And just know that that is possible as you're allowing your teen to get on and have these conversations and and build what feels like an emotional connection to a computer.
• 23:01
  Nate: Yeah.
• 23:02
  Luis: And that leads us to to really the final thing that you need to watch out for, and that's hallucinations and bias, right?
• 23:07
  Luis: AI can be confident and wrong.
• 23:11
  Nate: Oh, yeah.
• 23:12
  Luis: And so it's going to reflect um the data that it was trained on.
• 23:15
  Luis: And like we talked about it just a few minutes ago, right?
• 23:17
  Luis: It can give you a Bible verse that's not actually from the Bible.
• 23:20
  Luis: Yeah.
• 23:20
  Luis: And so kids need to learn to verify claims with trusted sources and ask, right, how would I know if if this is true?
• 23:28
  Nate: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:28
  Nate: So that's a big thing.
• 23:29
  Nate: Just because it says it, it can be totally making something up out of left field.
• 23:33
  Nate: And I think that they've worked through at least, you know, the big names in this, have worked through some of their biases because there were some really bad biases at the beginning.
• 23:41
  Nate: They've they've fixed it, but it's not gone, right?
• 23:44
  Nate: It's not gone completely.
• 23:46
  Nate: So let's think about you know, what is a s a plan for parents who really want to help their children uh think through this idea?
• 23:53
  Nate: Lewis, what where would we, you know, point them for this?
• 23:57
  Luis: It starts with having a family theology of technology, right?
• 24:02
  Luis: And so if your family doesn't have a theology of technology in in the home, um, then you need to create one.
• 24:08
  Luis: And it doesn't have to be difficult, right?
• 24:10
  Luis: Like it can just be something simple like in this home, technology is a tool.
• 24:15
  Luis: People are image bearers, right?
• 24:17
  Luis: And so and so you have to make a commitment that in this home we will always treat technology like a tool.
• 24:23
  Nate: Right.
• 24:23
  Nate: I've heard another one that um it was that that screens are for creating, not consuming.
• 24:28
  Nate: Oh, that's really good.
• 24:28
  Nate: And so that's a big thing.
• 24:29
  Nate: I'm just like that's a that's a anchor point to a little soundtrack you can can say for yourself where it's like this is I'm creating stuff.
• 24:37
  Nate: I'm going to the computer to create, I'm going on here to do something, I'm not just gonna sit here and mindlessly consume um, you know, whatever comes on the screen.
• 24:47
  Nate: Uh I think a second one would be just set some house rules, just like with phones, right?
• 24:51
  Nate: Is there a minimum age?
• 24:53
  Nate: Is there time boundaries?
• 24:54
  Nate: Um, you know, no AI, you know, anonymous companions.
• 24:58
  Nate: Um, you know, you're gonna use it in public for people, your family to see you using the tools.
• 25:04
  Nate: You know, hey, I'm asking Chat GPT to and you you just say that out loud and everybody knows what you're using it for.
• 25:11
  Nate: So that it gives a little accountability for for your your children as you're walking with them through it.
• 25:17
  Nate: That's really good.
• 25:18
  Nate: Or it's good because it saves history, right?
• 25:20
  Nate: So you know they don't have their own account.
• 25:22
  Nate: Yeah.
• 25:23
  Nate: Right?
• 25:23
  Nate: They use your account so that you can go back and see what they've put in.
• 25:26
  Luis: Yep, yep.
• 25:27
  Luis: Uh another thing to consider too is just to teach the three question test for anything you get from AI, right?
• 25:32
  Luis: Is what is the claim, what is the source, and how can I verify it?
• 25:37
  Luis: And that's just going to help you be able to fact check what you're learning or what you're getting from AI.
• 25:44
  Nate: Yep.
• 25:44
  Nate: And another one is privacy first, right?
• 25:46
  Nate: We've already talked about it, but turn on the strongest privacy settings, opt out of any data sharing and training and all of that stuff.
• 25:54
  Nate: Like make sure you know privacy is the most important thing.
• 25:57
  Nate: Don't share your name, don't share your location, don't share anything.
• 26:01
  Nate: Yeah.
• 26:01
  Nate: Um because that's that's the most important thing to keep your kids safe with all of their data out there on the internet.
• 26:08
  Nate: Yeah.
• 26:08
  Luis: And parents, I think one thing to do too is your kids are going to use AI.
• 26:12
  Luis: Um, so you can't pretend or hide from it, right?
• 26:15
  Luis: And so you're gonna need to create an honor policy for how they use AI for school.
• 26:20
  Luis: And so your school probably has a an AI policy already.
• 26:24
  Luis: Yeah, right.
• 26:25
  Nate: But it's good to have a home policy on top of that.
• 26:28
  Luis: So AI can be used for brainstorming, AI can be used for explaining, AI can be used for checking your grammar, for checking your spelling, but ultimately your child must own the ideas and the outline.
• 26:40
  Luis: Uh and look, reference tools that you use, right?
• 26:43
  Luis: And so if if if if your child is gonna be using Chat GPT or Gemini, um then ask the teacher in the class if if it's okay.
• 26:53
  Luis: Like, hey, can we use AI to understand this concept?
• 26:56
  Luis: Or hey, you know, uh your your your child has a uh research project that they're doing.
• 27:01
  Luis: Can I use AI to create the outline of what the paper is gonna be?
• 27:05
  Luis: Or can I use AI to find out what are good sources to use to research this particular project or this particular person?
• 27:13
  Nate: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:13
  Nate: That's really good.
• 27:14
  Nate: And kind of a bonus move here would be even like we've said, just like with phones or any technology, is to include some healthy replacement habits beside every screen habit.
• 27:25
  Nate: You know, you're gonna have a real conversation at dinner, you're gonna go for a walk, you're gonna read a book together, um, you know, something where you've got some analog relational habits built in so you don't just get all consumed within a digital world.
• 27:39
  Luis: Aaron Ross Powell And just to summarize what Andy Kraut says in The Tech Wise Family, right?
• 27:42
  Luis: Just this whole concept is you that way you're able to keep technology in its proper place so that it's serving you uh in your relationships rather than replacing real human interactions.
• 27:55
  Nate: Aaron Powell That's right.
• 27:55
  Nate: So, Lewis, as we kind of wind down this episode, you know, you've got a parent who's listening and and you know they are a little overwhelmed, maybe they are hit blindsided, whatever.
• 28:06
  Nate: Well you know, what would be some encouragement you give to these parents listening?
• 28:11
  Luis: Look, if if you have young children, right, as as you're navigating AI, um you're you're not behind, right?
• 28:19
  Luis: So if if if you're listening, just like, oh man, like there's so much to understand.
• 28:22
  Luis: No, right?
• 28:22
  Luis: Like help your kids understand that that's the AI is is sometimes wrong.
• 28:26
  Luis: It's it's gonna guess, right?
• 28:28
  Luis: It doesn't always know the right answers.
• 28:29
  Luis: And so encourage them to check it together.
• 28:32
  Luis: If you are working with with tweens, right, fifth, sixth, seventh graders, um, then explain that that AI can can help them study, right?
• 28:40
  Luis: But it doesn't change their thinking, right?
• 28:42
  Luis: Show them how to use it, help them understand it.
• 28:46
  Luis: And and if you're working with teenagers, right, you've got moody teenagers that are building friendships with AI companions, right?
• 28:53
  Luis: Then explain to them that if you want advice on relationships or emotions, come talk to me, right?
• 28:59
  Luis: Come come talk to your pastor, talk to a trusted mentor or teacher, because AI, for all of its benefits, cannot care for your soul and remind them that sometimes some of these platforms that they're using, it's gonna keep their data forever.
• 29:14
  Nate: And so including your emotionally vulnerable data that you shared with them, right?
• 29:18
  Luis: And so, parents, you you're called, you're equipped, right?
• 29:21
  Luis: You know that with wisdom, that with courage, that with these simple steps that we've described today, your family can learn how to use AI tools without really losing your true north, which is which is always God's word and Jesus Christ.
• 29:37
  Nate: That's exactly right.
• 29:38
  Nate: Uh, so I hope this was a helpful episode for you.
• 29:41
  Nate: Just kind of opened the window a little bit so you can understand AI and and how you can use it as a parent and how you can disciple your your child as they are using tools like AI to extend their God given abilities.
• 29:55
  Nate: Uh, if it did help you, please share it with a friend, another parent who could use this as well.
• 29:59
  Nate: Well, uh, leave us a rating and review.
• 30:02
  Nate: We're still a really new podcast, so any ratings, reviews like that, it helps get the word out.
• 30:08
  Nate: And so we're gonna see you next time on Thanksgiving Day as we kick off a little holiday season series that will carry us through the new year.
• 30:18
  Nate: Uh, but until then, uh keep leading the next generation to stand firm in their faith and influence the world for Christ.