School districts have spent the past few years working to get teachers up to speed on artificial intelligence and teaching AI literacy to students.
But there’s another group that needs outreach on this game-changing technology: parents.
Most parents aren’t aware of how their children are using AI tools. For instance, 75% of teens use AI companion chatbots, but only a third of parents know that their children are using them, according to a report released earlier this year by Common Sense Media, a research and advocacy organization focused on youth and technology.
Common Sense has teamed up with Day of AI, a nonprofit organization that works to educate students on the technology, to create an AI toolkit—released Nov. 17—to help parents better understand the technology and talk about it with their children.
AI safety concerns are already on the radar of parents and policymakers, attention spurred by high-profile cases of teens dying by suicide after prolonged engagement with chatbot companions.
It’s important that schools and parents work hand-in-hand to make sure students understand AI’s benefits and drawbacks, said Jeffrey Riley, the executive director of Day of AI.
Riley likened learning AI literacy to learning to drive. “AI is an even more powerful tool than a car,” he said.
Students “need to have these AI literacy lessons, and parents need to know what’s happening,” said Riley, the former Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“It has to be this kind of symbiotic relationship between parents and schools where everybody’s on the same page so that [students] know how to use this tool, but also know its limitations, what it can do, and what it can’t.”
The kit includes videos that offer short explanations of some of the complex aspects of the technology, including its tendency to present biased information, the algorithms that power AI and how they might limit the scope of information users are exposed to, and privacy implications.
School districts can show those videos to parents to help them get a quick grasp of the fundamentals of AI. And they can make them available for parents to share with their kids, Common Sense and Day of AI’s materials suggest.
The resources also include a slide show laying out some basic AI information that schools can use with families either as a standalone resource or as part of an AI parent information session. Also included: conversation starters that educators can share with families to help get teens comfortable talking to their parents about AI.
As AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, “we’re trying to develop more resources for families to have that human connection,” said Yvette Renteria, Common Sense Media’s chief program officer.
