Corey Turner

Yeah, I think dire is pretty fair.

Although I want to start with a glimmer of hope or at least some good news.

You know, some kids with disabilities, for example, are benefiting from AI improvements to things like text-to-speech programs.

Or imagine being in science class, right?

And because of AI, you're able to visually adventure inside a cell or zip around the solar system.

The problem here is that these tools are really the exception right now because they're complex and they can cost a lot of money that many schools just don't have.

And what kids are far more likely to be using in school and at home are these free, easily accessible chatbots.

Yeah, exactly.

The report lays out really two big buckets of risk here.

So first, young people who use this kind of AI aren't learning how to think for themselves.

And it's because most of these common chatbots don't actually supplement kids' learning, right?

Students just tell them to do something, and then the chatbot does it.

Here's Rebecca Winthrop.

She's one of the researchers on the study.

Ayesha, Winthrop told me if students rely on this kind of AI too much, it can actually stunt the kind of brain growth, wiring, that comes from the trying and doing and failing and trying again.

The other is social emotional growth.

So it's in childhood, right, that we learn how to get along with others, hopefully, especially people who may look and think and feel differently from us.

But these free chatbot tools are designed to be sycophantic.

What that means is they tell the user essentially whatever the AI thinks the student wants to hear.

For children and teens now, this can be really intoxicating because the user is always right.