Megan McCarty Carino

But plenty of people are still uneasy about it, whether it's boosting the economy or not.

We asked Marketplace's Megan McCarty Carina to do a vibe check.

It's hard to keep a classroom full of college students engaged these days.

So Professor Enid Baxter-Rice takes hers outside.

We had class in that tree down there in November.

For 20 years, she's taught cinema and technology at California State University Monterey Bay.

And for a while now, she's noticed some troubling changes in her students as smartphones, social media, and short-form video have become ubiquitous.

I saw a

Huge amount of distraction.

I saw that they weren't socializing as much, and I saw that they had more anxiety.

Now, she's contending with a new disruption.

One day, I turned on my computer, and there was ChatGPT available on the dashboard for free.

Last year, the Cal State system made a $17 million deal with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT to half a million students and faculty, whether they want it or not.

We're being told if you don't teach these kids this technology, it's just going to be another way that everything's working against them succeeding.

But Baxter-Rice is already noticing unsettling effects.

Students cheating on papers, of course, but also a sense that people on campus are struggling psychologically with the new technology.

I'm concerned.

I'm really scared.

What's happened to young people over the past 15 years is...

is scary enough, and then adding this technology to the conversation is really frightening.