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My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

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Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#411
My little son has a buddy who uses AI bots intensively. The friend is actually very smart and capable, but he pays too much attention to the things he likes (programming and games) and ignores all other aspects of basic education. And he slips, mindlessly copying what the bot tells him. If this is a widespread trend, it's obviously very worrying, especially for young students.

On the other hand, we have had many discussions with my son about the role of education, AI and what we need. Thankfully, my son understands that it's the struggle that we go through that helps us to understand and make the knowledge truly our own. Of course, I have to model my use of AI, pointing out its flaws and the dangers of mindlessly using bots.

At the end of the day, it's the internal motivation that drives us. If you're not interested in knowledge and learning, having a genie to cheat is too tempting to resist.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that a lot of parents forced to go through with unplanned pregnancies are uninterested. They didn't want their children, and they will do the bare minimum necessary to keep them alive until 18.

[flagged]

Who knew it was this easy? Thank you, citizen.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter is only 1 and a half years old now, but my concern is more that she'll be implicitly competing with classmates that are using tools like this, whether we allow her to use them or not.

I don't understand this sentiment, even though it is common among Americans. Why is education seen as a competition between students, even in the younger grades? I've even heard stories of parents of young children fighting with each other over their children's grades.

Everything in America is a competition. I'm sorry, but I chuckled considering that this _very website_ is devoted entirely to ruthlessly choosing winners and losers in (what purports to be) a cutthroat field. It's Hunger Games over here, buddy.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this sentiment, even though it is common among Americans. Why is education seen as a competition between students, even in the younger grades? I've even heard stories of parents of young children fighting with each other over their children's grades.

Grades determine what college you go to, which determines the connections you make, which determines the trajectory of your entire life.

Crucially, this also determines the quality of your medical care, and how hard the nursing home staff will hit you after you retire.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter is only 1 and a half years old now, but my concern is more that she'll be implicitly competing with classmates that are using tools like this, whether we allow her to use them or not.

Funny, I'm worried about classmates not being good enough for my girls. I'm worried that other kids will normalize bad ideas/behaviors growing up, and some day they'll end up in a dating scene that looks like today's, alone, or with a loser. I'd love to have them grow up into a world of strong, competent, conscientious, and honest peers. So this kind of development adds to my pile of worries about their future, but f…

Half of this website punches "Create a React app" into ChatGPT at work all day. I would make peace with the future.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a competition. Teach her to use her brain, and hope school will end up being a net positive. You can't fix other parents and their children. It starts now for you by the way. Keep her away from screens for now, and be a good role model when handling devices (and the apps on them). You have ten years to show them what computers can do for you, but also what being the master of your own cognitive skills will g…

> It's not a competition. As a parent whose child has been in two school systems, respectfully: yes, it is. And it begins earlier than you think.

What if we all just stopped competing?

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#417
post #311
post #145

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Suggest watching the movie gattaca to understand what happens to kids of parents who think like this in an extreme version. The problem is if you ignore the reality of the competition it’s basically setting your kid up to fail due to prisoner dilemma dynamics.

You have already failed your kid if you don't teach them to use their brain. Education is what let's people transcend the rat race of life, acquiring knowledge to use for the rat race isn't education in this sense. Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king. If you want your kids to be subservient to the king then of course they should use ChatGPT, and you should want schools to allo…

Hear me out: we could also build a more equitable society, one where the two choices aren't "live like an impoverished monk" and "win the Hunger Games".

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ChatGPT is free without the need for a credit card. Age restrictions don't actually stop kids from making accounts.

"The shit version of chatgpt is free" Fixed that for you. And it will get shittier as investment dries up and the pressure to monetize increases.

4o-mini is more than capable of doing grade school homework.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#419

I have this problem too! I wrote up this system prompt I want to set on my daughters account. You’re welcome to try using it and let me know it goes. (When I made a new chatgpt account for her it wouldn’t load. I need to try to set it up again) Prompt: This is my 9th graders account. She has been trying to avoid learning or even thinking by copy and pasting homework and quiz questions into chatgpt and not even readin…

I like what you have done. But I'm also afraid that your daughter will quickly get better at prompt engineering instead, and bypass your system prompt (with the help of other children). I'm convinced that no help can replace parents, and we ought to help them learn to love the struggle and taste the sweet fruit of their labors.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#420

People have felt the same way about waning handwriting skills and reliance on calculators. The truth is the way humans process information has been radically altered by LLMs and we're in the absolute infancy of understanding what that means. It is going to be far more disruptive than the keyboard or calculator. As we discover the implications, we are repeatedly going to find ourselves disturbed and disoriented. There…

> "The deep" are people with strong conceptual understanding of the problems to which they are applying AI and/or strong understanding of the AI itself. They will use AI to create things that didn't exist before. They will take seriously the risk management (although, they will still not be able to successfully predict all unintended consequences). Why would these people not just skip the AI part entirely, then?

Implicit in my argument is the idea that GenAI is a foundational building block of all sorts of innovations that people will come up with. I acknowledge that there are people who don't believe this.
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