Parents think they know how kids use AI. They don't
New surveys asked teens how they use AI. Parents have no idea what's going on, from homework to emotional support.
AI plays a huge role in Isis Joseph's life. "I use it every day," she says. The 17-year-old 11th grade student in New York City uses it for homework. AI helps her decide where to eat and provides inspiration for her poetry. Sometimes, she even turns to it with questions about issues in her personal life.
"Parents may inflate AI as this very threatening thing", and of course, many of those concerns are valid, she says. "But I think AI is generally good."
Joseph illustrates a larger trend. There's a wide gap between how parents and teenagers feel about AI in the lives of children, according to a new pair of studies from the Pew Research Center and Common Sense Media, a children's advocacy group. But there's a far more startling statistic in the details. The studies show a huge number of parents have no idea what their kids are doing with AI. Some uses are mundane, but some teens use AI in ways their families will find alarming.
One thing is clear: parents need to ask a lot more questions around the dinner table about how their children use chatbots.