AI In Education

Artificial intelligence has infiltrated American education. Knowing what is a valid use and when it robs your children of learning requires a biblical world view and a commitment to being a literary family. 

Transcript

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Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

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So there are some serious questions being asked these days regarding artificial intelligence and the education of children. This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne, last month, a gentleman by the name of Matt Barnum and a person named Deepa Sitha Ram, and I believe. Wrote an article suggesting your kids are probably cheating in high school. And it was a pretty good piece. Really. The headline didn't really give it away. Uh, they interviewed high school educators. They said some kids that were in high school and really tried to take a deep dive into how, uh, AI is becoming rooted into the American education system. And the argument always is like some of the teachers are concerned, Hey, you're using this to write the paper, to do the homework. And of course the defense by the students always like, no, I, I used that to edit my work. I used that to do the research. I. And of course you're in a society now with very little understanding of plagiarism and, and how this all works. And so, uh, this argument's very difficult to resolve. And, and what the teachers are really concerned about and the educators is that if you come in as a freshman on a campus and artificial intelligence does way too much of your work, the child's actually cheating themselves. They're going to not be a different person. They're not gonna be better at critical thinking. They're not gonna have a wider view of life. They're not gonna understand how to study and do this kind of work, and they will be the same person they were when they walked through the door when they were a freshman. I think that's a very interesting way of seeing it. You don't break the laws of God, you break yourself. It's kind of falls into one of those. And so how our kids are gonna know what the difference between using this tool correctly and using it to steal other people's work and putting your name on the work you didn't do. And that's gonna get sticky in artificial intelligence. So I think it's very important that we take a look at these so that our kids aren't getting caught up in plagiarism. Uh, one of the other things that you have to be considered about is if this stuff becomes sort of the go-to place of knowledge, I. Then does that become kind of the king of wisdom and does that king supplant the King of Christ, does that king begin to supplant our view that King Jesus is the author of life and of all wisdom. It can become very easy. I mean, we, we, we have a little trivia argument about which team won, you know, what championship in some year, and we're having a discussion around it. First thing we do is we pull out our phone and we go, oh, no. Here it is. And, and, and so these things, while they seem innocent, they begin to, I, I think, start to put together sort of a, a way in which we now see that, uh, artificial intelligence as the source of all information, the source of all wisdom. And it's not, I can tell you, and, and some of the times I have used it, you get into asking questions about God and it doesn't have any answers. In fact, it will, it will almost take God out of it. So I think there's three things that families have to do first and foremost. Um, you really have to get your kids to have this understanding that our faith is built on the understanding that Jesus Christ is the king of this universe. He spoke it into being, and he is the king of all. And you have to understand that from before people even were here. The devil began to battle against that kingship. He did not want Jesus to be king, and he and his rebellious angels, of course, were thrown out of heaven as a result of it. He then deceived humanity by telling him, oh, you can be like God. You can be your own king. And this battle just goes on and on in which humanity and those that are. Influenced by the prince of this world are trying to take down your trust in the Christian, in Christian understanding that Christ is king. And so you've really gotta get that, uh, understanding down. We just went through or we're going through the trial of Christ as we're going through holy, you know, this, this holy season and getting ready for Easter. And of course, what do the Jews say when Pilot says. Uh, he's your king, king of the Jews. Oh, no, we don't have a, we only have King Caesar. The denial of Christ as king has been going on from the beginning of time and before time. So make sure you have that story correct. And then I believe wise families need to be literate families. One of the best things I saw in this as I was reading through various opinions. Was the I was was the concept or the observation? I guess I should say, that the society is becoming more and more iconographic. In other words, it looks at pictures. We call'em videos, but it's pictures and it also is becoming very audible and it's becoming less and less literate. That's why we're seeing. Uh, literacy skills and reading levels, including lower and lower over the last 40 years as audio visual aids have gone and grown and grown. Um, I wanna, I wanna suggest to you that this is something that you're gonna have to make a, a choice on. And you know, one of my favorite mental fitness experts who passed away a few years ago as a gentleman by the name of Trevor Moad, his resume is very impressive. N-B-A-N-F-L teams, including Nick Saban's, Alabama team, and he coins this phrase after talking to Vince Carter called the illusion of choice. And the illusion of choice for an athlete is to believe that you can continue living a certain lifestyle, doing certain things and think that you're gonna keep playing. And, and Carter said no. What I learned to do to extend my career was things like, I can do a layup. I don't need to do a slam dunk. That's one less pounding on my knee. I'm not gonna slam it unless it's necessary. And there were a bunch of other lifestyle choices and he was trying to make the point that. He didn't have a choice that the choice is an illusion. These are things you must do, and I think this is pretty applicable. If your family is gonna be literary. You need to get the idea that the whys in this world and for your kids to have great thinking skills, they're going to have to be skilled in literature and in reading. And it's an illusion that kids will become wise while spending excessive time in activities that do not produce wisdom and do not take the brain to the brain. Gym. Uh, reading is, is the gymnasium. It is where our brains and our thinking skills are strengthened, and when we don't do it, they, those skills begin to atrophy, just like not. You know, not lifting weights at a gym, and I believe family is gonna have to take some time, um, in, in either becoming a book club within your kids, uh, spending some time reading some Bible verses, maybe suggesting, Hey, this year or the next six months, we're gonna read through the gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of John. You might only read one verse. Uh, you know, and you might only do it once a week, but you gotta get this literature and the sense of reading and reading the scriptures and then reading some books that help you understand the scripture, uh, as part of your family part as your family, raising of your kids, I guess is the best way to say it. I, I would never suggest that Youi become some sort of new version of the Amish, where we throw out our phones and smash our computers or something. But you're going to need to layer some of these old stories, some of these old Pilgrims Progress and some of those kinds of books that have been around for a very long time. I think Trevor and Noad would tell us, this means we're gonna have to say no to some things in order to say yes to wisdom. I. Jesus As I've told this story, and, and this is kind of our launch story of True North about building your house or your life on the rock, that which is true is what we can trust. I. And that which is sand is that which is false. And if you build, you know, on what is untrustworthy, the, the, the life collapses, it falls hard. And so it has to begin with what is the rock that we're building on. The rock is Peter's confession, that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. That's the king. Gotta get that story in. I think the world that our kids are facing is exciting. I think there's a lot of advancements that are gonna be very beneficial to them. And I think the victor goes, the spoils will be, will be the same as it always has been, and that Victor will be the one that chose wisdom. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.