Ep 382: Why AI Literacy is Essential for Parents and Kids in Education and Beyond

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Towards AI Empowerment

A focus on AI education for both parents and children is of immense importance in today's era. There are resources such as books and courses geared toward fostering AI literacy in families, emphasizing its role in safety, education, and equipping children for the future.

Plugging the AI Gap in Education

Although AI's role in the job market is growing, its incorporation into the education curriculum is lagging. Parents express concern over this gap, highlighting the increasing validity of AI literacy to succeed in future workplaces. Despite the willingness to integrate AI teachings, universities face challenges such as potential plagiarism risks, resulting in students entering the workforce with insufficient AI application knowledge.

Comprehending and Combating AI Fear

The lack of understanding often leads to fear and, in the case of AI, sometimes even demonization. Concerns typically include potential shifts in job markets and an irrational fear of 'robots taking over.' Understanding and navigating these apprehensions are crucial in fostering a healthier relationship with AI.

Balancing AI Integration and Human Values

While guiding the younger generation to comprehend AI's benefits, it's important to maintain balance. This balance includes emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and understanding that AI should enhance, not replace human effort. Similarly, while AI has fantastic potential in allocations like enhancing resumes, risks such as deepfakes and potential misuse for harmful content are essential to understand.

Handling AI Safely

High emphasis is placed on internet safety monitoring and teaching children about safe AI practices. With the rapid growth of generative AI, real-life human relationships' importance should not be underestimated. The advancement of AI and its implications for mental health, similar to social media, calls for a balanced approach that encourages real-life social interactions and responsible use of technology.

AI Literacy in Higher Education

AI literacy among college students is equally, if not more, crucial. Tools like Grammarly should be promoted as assets, enhancing student work rather than replacing it. Prevention against issues such as plagiarism and responsible AI use should also be taught and emphasized.

AI Adoption and Its Broader Implications

The adoption of AI can potentially offer personalized learning and tutoring, but educators must guide both parents and students to responsible AI use. The rapid changes in AI tools can be highlighted by Grammarly's evolution to function like ChatGPT, emphasizing the importance of equipping students with skills to navigate AI-based tools.

Summary: Embrace AI and Continuously Adapt

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. To thrive in a world increasingly influenced by AI, parents and students must seek AI literacy. The focus should be on improving lives and preparing for future challenges. Equipping today's students with responsible AI practices will ensure they remain competitive and independent, navigating the challenges of tomorrow.

Remember to stay informed on AI literacy—a skill that is becoming as integral to today's world as reading and writing. Navigate this brave new world with ease, preparedness, and knowledge.

Topics Covered in This Episode

1. Challenges in AI Education
2. Parental Concerns about AI
3. Risks and Safety Concerns of AI in Education
4. Advice for Parents on AI
5. AI Literacy in Higher Education

Podcast Transcript

Jordan Wilson [00:00:16]:
In the same way that social media has completely changed the way in which kids grow up and how they interact with their peers, artificial intelligence is going to do the same thing, except it may be coming at us even faster and have even wider implications than social media did. I think this is an important topic to talk about when we talk about generative AI, its impact on kids, parents, and the educational system in total. I'm excited for today's conversation. What's going on y'all? My name is Jordan Wilson. I'm the host of Everyday AI. This is your daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter helping you learn and leverage generative AI to grow your companies and to grow your careers. So if that sounds like you or if you're just very interested with, kind of this concept of how AI impacts, you know, how we raise our kids, you're definitely in the right place. If you haven't already, go to your everydayai.com.

Jordan Wilson [00:01:17]:
Sign up for that free daily newsletter. Every day, we bring you everything you need to keep up with in the world of AI as well as recapping, key insights from our interview each day. So before we get into the topic today, which I'm very passionate about personally, I always try to let our guests shine. I might have to, you know, butt in with a hot take here or there. But let's first go over with what's going on in the world of AI news. So Google Cloud has announced the general availability of Vertex AI and its health care data engine. So Google Cloud has just launched the general availability of its Vertex AI platform and new features for its healthcare data engine. So these Vertex AI improvements facilitate faster querying of health records and insights gathering, enhancing patient care.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:07]:
So the integration of Gemini in MedLM models focus on generative AI applications in health care with MedLM recognized for its performance on medical licensing exams, highlighting its potential impact. So a study by Google Cloud and the Harris poll revealed clinicians spend over 28 hours a week, yikes, on administrative tasks with 80% feeling those duties detract from patient care. Yeah. So, obviously, I think health care is a huge, huge industry about to be disrupted in a good way by AI. Speaking of disruption in AI, NVIDIA has unveiled a new AI model. And on some early benchmarks, it's actually outperforming, big frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic. So NVIDIA's new model is called llama 3.1 Nemotron 70b Instruqt. Yeah.

Jordan Wilson [00:03:03]:
That's the name. But it is obviously based on Meta's open source llama 3.1 model. So, essentially, all the smart NVIDIA researchers went in, fine tuned it, made it better, and it's a superhero now. So the model achieved top scores in 85 on the arena hard benchmark as well as a 57.6 on alpha eval 2. Alright. So we'll we'll share all those dorky benchmarks in the newsletters, but now businesses can access the model through NVIDIA's free hosted inference platform, which is build.nvidia.com. Right now, NVIDIA is warning that the model may not yet be suitable for specialized, specialized tasks in the field that require high accuracy. But this move could prompt competitors to accelerate their own development efforts and reshape strategies across various sectors.

Jordan Wilson [00:03:51]:
Yeah. Anytime an open source or open weights model goes in and competes with the the the big boys, the proprietary models, you gotta you gotta keep your eyes open. Alright. Last but not least, The New York Times is taking legal action against perplexity over content use. So The New York Times has demanded that perplexity stop using its content for generative AI purposes, claiming it violates copyright law. In a letter dated October 2nd, The Times requested that, perplexity cease all unauthorized access, to its content, and provide details on how it has been accessing their website so far. Perplexity asserts that it is not scraping data, but rather indexing web pages, yeah, the the nuances there, to provide factual content as citations in responses to user queries. The Times has obviously previously clashed with OpenAI and has an ongoing huge lawsuit with them.

Jordan Wilson [00:04:47]:
And right now, perplexity has also faced similar accusations from other media organizations, all across the board. So, you know, make sure to pay attention as we will continue to keep you up to date with this. Alright. But you didn't come here to hear about AI news. You came here to listen and to learn, about why AI literacy right now is essential for parents and kids in education and beyond. And don't worry. You don't have to hear me. Just blab on.

Jordan Wilson [00:05:14]:
I have a great guest for today, so please help me in welcoming to the show. There we go. We have Stephanie Worrell, who's the founder of AI Empower You. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining the Everyday AI Show.

Stephanie Worrell [00:05:25]:
Hey. Thanks, Jordan. Thanks so much for having me. This is such an important topic. I was really excited to to come on your show. So thank you. Thanks again for having me.

Jordan Wilson [00:05:35]:
Alright. And, hey, thank you again for joining us. And, to everyone joining us live, thank you. Please, if you have questions for Stephanie, go ahead and get them in. You know, that's that's one thing people don't know. Yeah. You're probably listening on the podcast, but this is a unedited, unscripted livestream as well. We like to have fun.

Jordan Wilson [00:05:51]:
But, Stephanie, before we get started, can you tell everyone just a little bit about what you do, at AI Empower You?

Stephanie Worrell [00:05:57]:
Yes. I am, the founder of AI Empower You, and our mission is to educate parents around AI. We we talk about, you know, safety, education, preparation, and, you know, everything from 1 on 1 with families to courses. I've got a book out, Raising AI Smart Kids. So, the whole mission is really to make sure that, you know, parents help help parents teach and, educate their kids around AI to make sure that, you know, you're prepared and they're prepared for the future. AI is here. It's not going away. Don't stick your head.

Stephanie Worrell [00:06:37]:
We we we you know, you can't stick your head in the sand anymore. So it's really to bring awareness around the need for AI and education. So

Jordan Wilson [00:06:45]:
Yeah. And and, Stephanie, you're coming at this from multiple angles. So now with your business, you know, working, with parents and, you know, trying to improve AI literacy. But can you tell everyone really quick about your own, you know, background in the classroom and what you do on the teaching side as well?

Stephanie Worrell [00:07:02]:
Yeah. I'm a college professor at, an adjunct at 3 different, universities. I teach marketing and communication courses. And, the really I mean, I have my own kids. They're older. One's 20, one's 26. But will I really realized that there was a need for it was, really a couple years ago as AI generative AI started to come on to the scene. You know, I thought this is gonna be in the workforce.

Stephanie Worrell [00:07:28]:
And as an educator, and, you know, I want my my students to go out into the workforce and be able to, like, contribute right away, feel good about, you know, that they know what they're doing as much as they possibly can. And I'm thinking AI is out there, and they're not getting any type of it's not integrated into the curriculum. Universities are more, more, centered around right now, like, figuring out they're just trying to harness it, in terms of, you know, plagiarism and that kind of thing. Well, it's not integrated into the curriculum. And so when the our students are going out, like, if I was a you know, you asked me for a a hot take earlier. Like, if I was a college student right now, I'd be flipping out, about going out into the workforce, because it's, you know, you're you're likely not getting a much AI, integrated into your education right now. So you need to you know, parents of college students, parents of high school students, teenagers, like, you you you gotta make sure your your your kids are educated around AI because when they if you wanna live unless you wanna live in your basement forever, which I guess I wouldn't mind that. My kids move back, and I'm just joking.

Stephanie Worrell [00:08:37]:
You know, you gotta just like we always have, we gotta prepare our kids for the future.

Jordan Wilson [00:08:41]:
Yeah. Stephanie's kids right now are about to save on rent. They heard that part. You know, they're coming back to the basement, mom. So, you know, Stephanie, I'm gonna ask you about, you know, kind of both of these major hats that you wear, right, both as an educator and now as someone working, with parents. But maybe let's start on the latter. So what are parents most worried about right now when it comes to not just AI and AI literacy, but just in general. Right? Because I think this is a seismic shift, but what are parents worried about right now?

Stephanie Worrell [00:10:12]:
The I think most of the parents that I encounter, like, they I think they're just worried they don't understand it, a. And then there there's a lot of demon demonizing of it. So they're worried about it. Like, I think everybody thinks you know, we've seen all the most generations that are probably listening here. You know, the robot movies are here. You know, they're worried that robots are gonna take over the world and, parents are worried about themselves and and what they're if they're gonna be able to continue in the workforce. So, you know, a, they don't understand it. And I a lot of parents are demonizing it, which is causing them to stick their heads in the sand.

Stephanie Worrell [00:10:45]:
So that's that's what I'm seeing right now is, like, a lot of them are just even ignoring it because they they don't understand it. So it's been really interesting. When I started doing this, I thought, oh, everyone's gonna wanna know about this and they need to know about it. And, you know, it it's been a little bit difficult to, like, start to warm parents up to the idea that, hey. It's it's here. So

Jordan Wilson [00:11:04]:
You know, and and maybe we can learn a little bit through even your personal example. So you said you have kids and, you know, you were, you know, going through this probably much more educated than the average parent, right, being a a professor in in in marketing and and communications. But how did you even approach this, you know, as a parent? Maybe walk us through, kind of how you saw AI's impact happening and, you know, how you, you know, navigated that as a parent.

Stephanie Worrell [00:11:34]:
Yeah. So I started I mean, I've got 2 different kids, and I've it's really interesting. I've got one kid that's a scientist and was very opposed to it and thought, you know, we can't be you know, AIs you know, she was demonizing it basically and didn't see the value. And, you know, it's thought the and still sometimes thinks it's, you know and and there are miss there is misinformation. So we need to make sure that's one of the things we educate kids about and parents is, like, there's a lot of misinformation out there. And then I've got another kid that any shortcut he can take to, like, get his homework done. You know, he's there, and he's all about it. So I had to make sure with 1 kid, the one that's in college right now that that is just starting his freshman year, making sure that he understands that, you know, you you still need a critical think.

Stephanie Worrell [00:12:20]:
You need to know how to use it. You need to use it to enhance your education. But but but just by and and it's very easy. Like, you have to write a paper. He was participating in a discussion group not too, you know, early in the semester, and he thought he could just, you know, plug it into AI and participate in the discussion. And that's plagiarism. So we need to make sure, you know, our kids clear down to, like, 3rd 4th grade. I was at a dinner table, this summer with 3rd 4th graders, and they were using it to do their math, and they were using it to do their papers.

Stephanie Worrell [00:12:53]:
So so with one kid, I I approached it where, you know, here's the guardrails around it. Here here's how you need to use it to enhance, and, you know, you you your education. Then the other one, I had to show her the benefits of using it, and that, you know, it can that you can use it for good. You know, she's just recently, starting a new job with AmeriCorps, and I helped her use it as she was applying for jobs, with her resume and all of you know, her resume or cover letter, all of those things. Of course, we didn't just plop our information out there and and then out, you know, out came her resume and her cover letter. You know, I had her you know, she wrote it, and then we put it in put it into AI to customize it. And it you know, everybody was very impressed with with her resume and her cover letter, and it was because we I we did a good job of enhancing it with AI.

Jordan Wilson [00:13:41]:
Yeah. And, yeah, I think that's very important to talk about, Stephanie, is this, you know, I say this sometimes, the duality of of AI. Right? There's there's a shiny side of this of of the coin, and then there's a scary side of the coin as well. So I think, you know, we've we've we've talked plenty on this show, about the shiny side. Right? About the, you know, the access, to to education, all the great good that AI can do in the classroom, personalized learning, all of those things. What about the scary side? What should parents be aware of when it comes to, you know, potential risks of AI, safety, all of those things?

Stephanie Worrell [00:14:19]:
Yeah. Safety is a is a big part of what I talk about with parents and, you know, basic Internet. Hopefully, parents at this point have, you know, basic Internet, you know, you know, making sure you scrape boundaries around it, those kind of things. But the scary side of it, if you don't and you're not monitoring, first, have the conversation. No. Because your kids are probably using it. So, have the conversation. Understand how they're using it.

Stephanie Worrell [00:14:42]:
But, you know, right now, we were just talking about, a case in, Massachusetts, the Hingham School District. There was a a kid that they the parents just sued the school district and that I believe the teacher because they were accusing him of plagiarizing, a paper that he had done. And really, he had he had been using it like Google to do his background research. So the scary side of it is, you know, you need to understand how your kids are using it. So if something like that happens, you you can deal with it as a parent with the school district and and know whether your kid how they used it, how they're using it, whether they plagiarized or not. Deepfakes are out there. We're seeing that with, celebrities, you know, Taylor Swift and, multiple, celebrities. But it's also happening to young kids, you know, with pornography and those kind of things.

Stephanie Worrell [00:15:29]:
And that with the video capabilities, which you talk about a lot, you know, it's becoming more and more advanced. And so it can look like your child is starring in a porn movie, basically. So we need you need to make sure that you you educate your kids around that. And then the other thing that I worry about is it's with AI is that, you know, like, you put information in, you put questions in, it can answer you back. And so, you know, we've got social media, and now we're gonna layer AI, and it has the ability to talk back to you. And so kids are starting to develop relationships versus, you know, with with with the with AI versus, you know, versus other others' kids, other students, with their families. And so, you know, deep fakes, plagiarism, and, you know, and and and just making sure that kids are having real relationships with people, and they aren't, like, diving into, you know, you know, instead of dating or or having friendships that, you know, they're developing meaningful relationships.

Jordan Wilson [00:16:27]:
Yeah. It's it's an important call out, Stephanie, because I think maybe some parents, when they think of AI or generative AI, they just think of ChatGPT. Right? And they just think of text on a screen. Right? Not knowing that, you know, these large language models are even multimodal. Right? Knowing, hey, ChatGPT on the phone, you can literally pick up and start talking to it, and it'll talk back to you. Right? Right. Luckily, the guardrails are okay, you you know, at least in this first version, but fruit, I do believe future versions of this technology will have fewer guardrails. Right? So, you know, you kind of talked about, hey.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:02]:
Parents need to have like, they would. Like, they need to have some sort of rule or guidelines like they would on the Internet, or or maybe similar, to to social media. So how can parents find that balance? Right? Because number 1, this is brand new. Right? Like, this is coming fast. It's it's changing and updating, every day. So that's that's number 1. But number number 2, like, we've never been here before. We don't have any, you know, barometer to to go back and say, oh, this is like, you know, 15 years ago when this happened.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:37]:
So how can parents find that nice balance of of using AI for the good, but keeping up and keeping their kids away from all of the bad?

Stephanie Worrell [00:17:46]:
Yeah. I mean, just like I talked about, have a conversation, understand how they're using it. More than likely, if they're 5th grade or older, they're using it in some way. And they're also I mean, there's Khan Academy that's already in the schools. So they're you know, your kids are already using it. You probably just don't know about it. And so, you know, having the conversation and then setting boundaries around it. So understanding what they're using it for.

Stephanie Worrell [00:18:10]:
So if they're using ChatGPT, how they're using it, if they're still using their, you know, critical thinking, understand what's out there. Because, you know, we've talked a lot about the negative side of it, but there's a lot of positive. One of the big positives for me was I wish I would have had this when I was a parent, and we haven't been there before, is the homework hell in the evenings. You know? So you're you're the kids are hangry. You're hangry. They're trying to get their you know, you're trying to get math. I did I was I'm not a math student. You know, under you know, educating yourself how to use ChatGPT.

Stephanie Worrell [00:18:40]:
There's photo math. Like, how to help tutor your own kids to do homework. Like, you don't turn you don't sit your kid, plop them down in front of the computer and say, hey, ChatGPT. Help them do their homework. Like, you're, like, using it as a tutor. You know, we, so that that can be really helpful. So, you know, using it for the good, understanding what the good is. So setting boundaries, starting the conversation, understanding how to use it for the good, and then, you know, just basically, under you know, keeping yourself up to date.

Stephanie Worrell [00:19:11]:
One of the things that I do is I have a parent community that you can join. And so talking to each other, you know, seeing what's happening with kids, I think is a good is good.

Jordan Wilson [00:19:21]:
So, you know, I love that example of, you know, don't just sit your kid in front of ChatGPT and say help. Right? Make it a collaborative experience, which, I think is a is a great point. Right? Because not only can it bring personalized learning to students, it can bring, you know, personalized tutoring to, student parents combos. Right? And to help the 2 of you through, it can help parents be better, you know, educators for their children, which I think is often an overlooked aspect of of AI. But what about the, you know, you kind of referenced earlier, Stephanie, about some of these downsides, but maybe even what about its potential toll on, like, mental health? Right? That's obviously, you know, I think social media. Personally, I I hate social media. Right? Like, I I'm not on anything aside from, like, you know, LinkedIn or reading news on Twitter, but I'm not on Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all these TikToks. Right? I I I don't touch those because I think that they can have a real negative impact on people.

Jordan Wilson [00:20:21]:
Is AI can it have a similar negative impact on mental health?

Stephanie Worrell [00:20:26]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I started to touch on it, but, you know, you're you're absolutely right. And I because of what I do and my work, and then, you know, and trying to get a message out, I do I work I, you know, I I I am on social media. And so, you know, we we layer AI on top of that where, you know, you can AI can, again, have a conversation with you, and you can isolate yourself. And, you know, some of our kids that are, you know, in college right now have already been isolated because of COVID, and they're already having mental health issues, and they started to isolate themselves to social media. I know numerous kids, maybe even one of my own, that started to do that during social media, and we're still trying to get her out of that out of that mode where, you know, you are building relationships with other people. And so and it can tell you what to do.

Stephanie Worrell [00:21:16]:
I mean, this isn't an example of a kid or a parent, but, there's a reporter, I think, from the New York Times that started talking to ChatGPT, and, ultimately, it started talking to him about divorcing his wife. So, you know, that, you know, that, you know, I've not seen that happen, but, you know, you don't know. You don't know where all that data is coming from. And and so, you know, and it is starting to personalize and talk to you. You know, I can put in you know, I'm a Gemini, and it can, you know, give me my astrological readout for the day. So it can start to get really personal, and so we've gotta make sure that our kids just aren't talking to the computer. They aren't you know, kids a lot of kids are, you know, gaming and social media. They're spending all their time on the computer.

Stephanie Worrell [00:22:01]:
That was something that we fought with the kids growing up. And now is there's even more of a reason. You know, they can actually have a what they think might be a meaningful conversation with AI. So, you know, it it it layers on the mental health issues that could could can happen with social media. So you're absolutely

Jordan Wilson [00:22:17]:
right. Yeah. And and maybe now, Stephanie, if we can put on your other hat. Right? So we just talked a little bit, about parents and kids, you know, the the younger demographic. But now let's talk a little bit about what you do on the other side. Right? Educating college students. What's what's your take on even AI literacy in college students? And, you know, I'm I'm glad you actually, you know, adjunct at 3 different, you know, 3 different places. So you probably have a nice, more balanced viewpoint than if you were in just one.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:51]:
But overall, right, how would you explain, the current landscape of AI use in colleges, and what should even parents of college age kids be looking out for?

Stephanie Worrell [00:23:03]:
Yeah. I mean, it's the same as when you're I mean, just basic the the things that we worry about when our kids are in college is, you know, I I mean, I don't think my kids would do this, but you never know, like, plagiarizing and all the things that we, you know, worry about as as college students. But, the, again, the thing that I really I really started to hone in on is we're starting to see all these AI tools out there that that like, even like Grammarly, you know, things like that. Like, I I I suggest all of my students use Grammarly. So they're not writing their paper with with AI, but they're using Grammarly to uplevel their, you know, their their work. And so, as I'm teaching and working with, I'm trying to introduce them to those kind of tools. So they're not like I said, it's not doing the work for them. It's enhancing them.

Stephanie Worrell [00:23:50]:
It's helped. It's brain it's helping them brainstorm. So introducing them to tools that they can use when they that they're immediately gonna see. I mean, obviously, they're gonna likely see ChatGPT. So at least introducing them to ChatGPT and the right ways to using it, you know, and and things you know, I also work with, professionals in the communications industry. So things that, you know, trans around transparency, making sure people know that you are using AI, how to use it, what the tools are out there. And then the job landscape is starting to shift. So the other thing is teaching kids how to, and students, not all of them are kids.

Stephanie Worrell [00:24:30]:
Some of them are older. You know, what how to look for jobs. You know, job searches. What's out there? You know, should they be learning how to code? You know, really just getting the basic fundamentals, AI in the classroom so that they aren't shocked when they go out because their peers are gonna be using it in different ways. So really, it's all about I I really emphasize preparing yourself. And, you know, a lot of like I said, a lot of the schools right now are all about either getting an AI tool so they can say they have AI in their in their schools or they're work just working about around the guardrails, you know, preventing, plagiarism and those kind of things. So we want I mean, the it's scary enough for a a student to graduate, you know, that senior year. They're all they're already worried about getting the job.

Stephanie Worrell [00:25:22]:
And now we're layering on top of that a whole new technology that they that normally like, we always think about I mean, I always thought about young people like, oh, yeah. Social media, inter you know, Wi Fi, Internet, all those things. You know, young kids have a grasp on that. We we turn to them to help understand that, and they're getting that at the university level. Well, it's not happening at this point. And it's it it it we we we've gotta make sure that it's it's introduced in our curriculum.

Jordan Wilson [00:25:49]:
Yeah. And a lot of a lot of great points there to to unravel, Stephanie. I think, you you know, one, one important thing to talk about, you know, I know, like, as an example, you mentioned Grammarly. Right? Because I think early on in the, you you know, generative AI wave, you know, that's where everyone looked. They're like, oh, okay. Well, Grammarly and right? But you have to keep up because things always change. And now Grammarly, for the most part, can function exactly like ChatGPT. Right? You can have literally a blank screen, and you can have Grammarly essentially write your paper, right, or improve it.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:21]:
But, you know, I think that's another thing that's important to to call out is all these tools are are changing and even, you know, tools that you might have thought is traditionally, oh, okay. It's great if my child uses Grammarly at all times. I'm not saying it's bad. Right? It's so great. But, you know, even the features and functionalities of what all these other AI tools can do changes constantly. And one one other thing that I wanted to dive into a little bit deeper here, is is you you talked about preparedness. Right, and and students coming out of college feeling prepared. I think there's some universities that are doing great at this.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:56]:
Right? And they're, introducing generative AI, in a responsible, ethical way and teaching students what they need to know. There are some schools that I think are completely dropping the ball and still just blanket, blanket banning, all AI, which is the most in demand skill when students get out in the workforce. So from your perspective, how should schools be tackling this maybe a little bit better, maybe a little bit more uniformly to to make sure students when they leave college are prepared and have these essential skills?

Stephanie Worrell [00:27:30]:
Yeah. We need to be looking at we we need to be working with the professors and, you know, the teachers and and making sure that it is introduced into the curriculum. So when you're writing your syllabus for the semester, you know, you're thinking about how generative AI, you know, plays into this subject whether even if it's a history course. You know, how generative AI, plays into the subject. You know? And then when we're we get you know, as as they're preparing curriculum for students, at the upper levels where you're taking courses that are more related to your major and what you're gonna be doing when you get out, really making sure that you're, you know, you have, you know, even if you're you as a professor are are not all up to speed on generative AI, there's lots of speakers out there that you can bring in, experts, you know, people like myself, lots there there are experts in AI that you can bring into the classroom. So bringing that perspective and exposing I mean, I was or I'm most most teachers are already doing that, like, bringing guest speakers in so that they understand. I know when I teach marketing and communications, like, I want individuals to come in, professionals to come in that are talking to them about what the profession is like now, so that when they get out, they're not surprised. So making sure we're just making sure we're integrating it in and, you know, even companies are banning it.

Stephanie Worrell [00:28:54]:
I mean, it it's sort of like social media. I don't you I don't know if you remember this, but in my profession, when social media started to roll out, I was like, oh my gosh. No. We can't be doing that, you know, at the corporate level. Like, we can't let anybody on social media, we that we can't take that stance with AI, all around in our education, in our profession. We've gotta be open to it, and we gotta get up to speed.

Jordan Wilson [00:29:16]:
So, we've covered a whole lot today, Stephanie, from, you know, some of the potential misuses and dangers of, you know, kind of unsupervised AI in kids and some of the scary things and why it's important for parents to be actively involved. And we went all the way through, right, all the way through college and, you know, why it's important for universities to equip students with AI skills. But as we wrap up here, maybe what is the one most important takeaway? Right. So with parents out there listening, students out there listening, what is your one most important takeaway when it comes to why AI literacy is so important for parents and kids?

Stephanie Worrell [00:29:59]:
Yeah. Well, my one main message is don't stick your head in the sand. Like, get on the get on the bus, educate yourself, and then, you know, why parents should educate themselves? I mean, not only can it benefit yourself, your you as a parent, it I talked about the homework aspect of it. It can make you a better parent. I use it for organization, you know, nutrition, my schedule. I mean, it can really enhance your job as a parent and and help educate yourself as a parent, help you have a better relationship with your kid. I don't know, you know, about you out the the parents out there listening, but, you know, the homework, health stuff, really, you can put a a, you know, rift between it's not it's not fun. So making sure that, you know, you understand how to use it to be up to enhance yourself as a parent.

Stephanie Worrell [00:30:45]:
And then, again, preparation. You know, your kids are gonna be exposed to it, and they need to be prepared, and they need to know what to do. Just like with social media, you know, if something happens, they need to know what to do if something happens like a deep fake. So, you know, just and then just preparing your kids for the future so that they, you know, they aren't afraid of it and they, can get jobs, they can be gainfully employed, and, you know, stay out of your basement in the future. So

Jordan Wilson [00:31:11]:
Hey. That's always what parents wanna hear. Right? How can we ensure the kids get out of the basement? Stephanie, this was a great conversation to have. I I I think it's important that we talk about this, you know, AI literacy and kind of how it plays into our our, you know, impact in the roles of parents have with their kids. So thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join Everyday AI and help our audience better understand this. We appreciate your time.

Stephanie Worrell [00:31:36]:
Yeah. Sure. Anytime. Thanks, Jordan. Thanks, Jordan.

Jordan Wilson [00:31:38]:
As a reminder, y'all, there's a lot there. We packed in a lot. Don't worry. If you miss anything, we're gonna be recapping all of it and everything that you need to know outside of today's interview as well in our newsletter. So if you haven't already, please go to your everyday AI.com. Sign up for that free daily newsletter. If this was helpful, if you're listening on the podcast, please share it with someone. Subscribe to the show.

Jordan Wilson [00:32:00]:
Leave us a rating. And more importantly, please join us back tomorrow and every day for more everyday AI. Thanks y'all.