EP 382: Why AI Literacy is Essential for Parents and Kids in Education and Beyond
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This is the Everyday AI Show, the everyday podcast where we simplify AI and bring its power to your fingertips. Listen daily for practical advice to boost your career, business, and everyday life. 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 alike.

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 live stream 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

how we raise our kids, you're definitely in the right place. If you haven't already, go to youreverydayai.com. 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 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 healthcare 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. So the integration of Gemini and MedLM models focus on generative AI applications in healthcare 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 healthcare 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 Lama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct. Yeah, that's the name. But it is obviously based on Meta's open source Lama 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 NVIDIA.

85 on the Arena Hard Benchmark, as well as a 57.6 on Alpa Eval 2. All right, so 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. Yeah. Anytime an open source or open weights model goes in and competes with the big boys, the proprietary models, you gotta keep your eyes open. All right. 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 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. And right now, perplexity has also faced similar accusations from other media organizations, uh,

all across the board. So, you know, make sure to pay attention as we will continue to keep you up to date with this. All right. 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 and education and beyond. And don't worry, you don't have to hear me just blab on. 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. Hey, thanks, Jordan. Thanks so much for having me. This is such an important topic. I was really excited to come on your show. So thank you. Thanks again for having me.

All right. 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 one thing people don't know. Yeah, you're probably listening on the podcast, but this is an unedited, unscripted live stream as well. We like to have fun. But Stephanie, before we get started, can you tell everyone just a little bit about what you do at AI Empower You?

Yes, I am the founder of AI Empower You, and our mission is to educate parents around AI. We talk about safety, education, preparation, and everything from one-on-one 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 the 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. 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.

Yeah. And Stephanie, you're coming at this from multiple angles. So now with your business, working with parents and trying to improve AI literacy. But can you tell everyone really quick about your own background in the classroom and what you do on the teaching side as well? Yeah. I'm a college professor, an adjunct at three different universities. I teach marketing and communication courses. And

And really, I mean, I have my own kids. They're older. One's 20, one's 26. But where I really realized that there was a need for it was really a couple of years ago as AI, generative AI started to come onto the scene and

you know, I thought this is going to be in the workforce. And as an educator, you know, I want 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, you know,

centered around right now, like figuring out, 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 our students are going out, like if I was, you know, you asked me for 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 got to make sure your kids are educated around AI because when they if you want to live, unless you want to live in your basement forever, which I guess I wouldn't mind that my kids move back. And I'm just joking. You know, you've got to just like we always have. We've got to prepare our kids for the future.

Yeah. Stephanie's kids right now about to save on rent. They heard that part. They're coming back to the basement, mom. So Stephanie, I'm going to ask you about both of these major hats that you wear, 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? Because I think this is

a seismic shift. But what are parents worried about right now?

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting the results from ChatGPT that I needed and wanted. And after taking the PPP course, I now realized that I was not priming correctly. So I will be heading back into ChatGPT right now to practice my priming, prompting, and polishing. Everyone's prompting wrong, and the PPP course fixes that.

If you want access, go to podpp.com. Again, that's podpp.com. Sign up for the free course and start putting ChatGPT to work for you. I think most of the parents that I encounter, like...

I think they're just worried they don't understand it. And then there's a lot of 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 going to take over the world and parents are worried about themselves and what they're, if they're going to 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,

It's causing them to stick their heads in the sand. So that's, that's what I'm seeing right now is like a lot of them are just even ignoring it because they don't understand it. So it's been really interesting when I started doing this, I thought, oh, everyone's going to want to know about this and they need to know about it. And, you know, 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.

You know, 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 professor in marketing 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.

Yeah. So I started, I've got two different kids and 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 and still sometimes thinks it's, you know, and there are myths

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 one kid, the one that's in college right now, that is just starting his freshman year, making sure that he understands that, you know, you, you still need to critical think you need to know how to use it. You need to use it to enhance your education and,

But but but just by and it's very easy. Like you have to write a paper. He was participating in a discussion group not too 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 third and fourth grade. I was at a dinner table this summer with third and fourth graders and they were using it to do their math and they were using it to do their papers. So with one kid, I approached it where, you know, here's the guardrails around it. Here's how you need to use it to enhance.

and your education. And the other one, I had to show her the benefits of using it and that you can use it for good. 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 that, 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 really, you know, everybody was very impressed with her, with her resume and her cover letter. And it was because we, I, we did a good job of enhancing it with AI. Yeah. And yeah,

I think that's very important to talk about, Stephanie, is this, you know, I say this sometimes, the duality of AI, right? There's a shiny side of the coin, and then there's a scary side of the coin as well. So I think, you know, we've talked plenty on this show about the shiny side, right? About the, you know, the access 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? Yeah.

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 screen boundaries around it, those kinds 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, uh, have the conversation, understand how they're using it. But, you know, right now, um,

We were just talking about a case in Massachusetts, the Hingham School District. There was a kid that the parents just sued the school district and I believe the teacher because they were accusing him of plagiarizing a paper that he had done. And really, 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 can deal with it as a parent with the school district and know whether your kid, how they used it, how they're using it, whether they plagiarized or not. Deep fakes 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 kinds of things. 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 educate your kids around that. And then the other thing that I worry about is it's with AI is that, you know, 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 going to layer AI and it has the ability to talk back to you. And so kids are starting to develop relationships versus, you know, with AI versus, you know, versus other people.

other kids, other students with their families. And so, you know, deep fakes, plagiarism and, you know, 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.

Yeah, 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 chat GPT, right? And they just think of text on a screen, right? Not knowing that these large language models are even multimodal, right? Knowing, hey, chat GPT on the

phone, you can literally pick up and start talking to it and it'll talk back to you. Right. Luckily the guardrails are okay. You know, at least in this first version, but I do believe future versions of this technology will have fewer guardrails. Right. So, you know, you kind of talked about, Hey, parents need to have like they would like they need to have some sort of rule or guidelines

like they would on the internet, uh, or, or maybe similar, uh, to, to social media. So how can parents find that balance? Right. Because number one, this is brand new, right? Like this is coming fast. It's, it's changing and updating, uh, every day. So that's, that's number one, but number, number two, like we've never been here before. We don't have any, uh,

you know, barometer to go back and say, oh, this is like, you know, 15 years ago when this happened. So how can parents find that nice balance of using AI for the good, but keeping up and keeping their kids away from all of the bad? Yeah, I mean, just like I,

Talked about have a conversation, understand how they're using it more than likely if they're fifth 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 that, 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. So if they're using chat GPT, how they're using it, if they're still using their 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, the kids are hangry, you're hangry. They're trying to get their, you know, you're trying to get math. I didn't, I was, I'm not a math student, you know, under, you know, educating yourself how to use chat GPT. There's photo math, like how to help tutor your own kids, right?

to do homework like you don't turn you don't sit your kid popping down in front of the computer and say hey chat to help them do their homework like you're like using it as a tutor you know we um so that that can be really helpful so um you know using it for the good understanding what the good is um so setting boundaries starting the conversation understanding how to use it for the good um and then you know just basically um

under, you know, keeping yourself up to date. 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 it's a good, it's good.

So, you know, I love that example of, you know, don't just sit your kid in front of chat GPT and say help, right? Make it a collaborative experience, which I think 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 two of you through, it can help parents be better, you know, parents

for their children, which I think is often an overlooked aspect 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, particularly

Personally, I hate social media, right? Like 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 don't touch those because I think that they can have a real negative impact on people. Is AI, can it have a similar negative impact on mental health?

Yeah, absolutely. And I started to touch on it, but, you know, you're absolutely right. And because of what I do and my work and then, you know, and trying to get a message out, I do, I work, you know, I am on social media. And so, you know, 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 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 situation.

out of that mode where, you know, you are building relationships with other people. And so, and it can tell you what to do. I mean, this isn't an example of a, a kid or a parent, but there was a reporter, I think from the New York times that started talking to chat GBT. 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 give me my astrological readout for the day. So it can start to get really personal. And so we've got to make sure that

Our kids just aren't talking to the computer. They aren't, you know, kids, a lot of kids are gaming and social media. They're spending all their time on the computer. That was something that we fought with the kids growing up. And now 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 layers on the mental health issues that can happen with social media. So you're absolutely right.

Yeah. 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 younger demographic. But now let's talk a little bit about what you do on the other side. Right. Educating college students.

What's your take on even AI literacy in college students? And I'm glad you actually adjunct at three different places. So you probably have a nice, more balanced viewpoint than if you were in just one. But overall, 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?

Yeah. I mean, it's the same as when you're, I mean, just basic 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 worry about as college students. But, um,

Again, the thing that I really started to hone in on is we're starting to see all these AI tools out there, even like Grammarly, things like that. I suggest all of my students use Grammarly. So they're not writing their paper with AI, but they're using Grammarly to up-level their work. And so as I'm teaching and working with, I'm trying to introduce them to those kind of tools and

So they're not, like I said, it's not doing the work for them. It's enhancing them. It's helping them brainstorm. So introducing them to tools that they can use that they're immediately going to see. I mean, obviously they're going to likely see ChatGBT. So at least introducing them to ChatGBT and the right ways to using it, you know, and things, you know,

I also work with professionals in the communications industry. So things that, you know, 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, some of them are older, you know, 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 in.

AI in the classroom so that they aren't shocked when they go out because their peers are going to be using it in different ways. So really it's all about, 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 just working around about around the guardrails of,

you know, preventing plagiarism and those kinds of things. So we want to,

I mean, it's scary enough for a student to graduate, you know, that senior year, they're all, they're already worried about getting a job. 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, you know, wifi, internet, all those things, you know, young kids have a grasp on that. We turn to them and,

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, we, we, we've got to make sure that it's, it's introduced in our curriculum. Yeah. And a lot of, a lot of great points there to, to unravel Stephanie. I think, you know, one, uh, one important thing to talk about, you know, I know like as an example, you mentioned Grammarly, right. Cause I think early on in the, you know, generative AI

I wave, you know, that's where everyone looked. They're like, 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 chat GPT, right? You can have literally a blank screen and you can have Grammarly essentially write your podcast.

paper or improve it. But I think that's another thing that's important to call out is all these tools are changing. And even 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. It's so great. But even the features and functionalities of what all these other AI tools can do changes constantly. And one other thing that I wanted to dive into a little bit deeper here is you talked about preparedness.

Right. And students coming out of college feeling prepared. I think there's some universities that are doing great at this. Right. And they're introducing generative AI in a responsible, ethical way and teaching students what they need to know. There's some schools that I think are completely dropping the ball and still just blanket students.

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 make sure students, when they leave college, are prepared and have these essential skills? Yeah. We need to be looking at

we need to be working with the professors and, you know, the teachers 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 they're preparing curriculum for students, you know,

at the upper levels where you're taking courses that are more related to your major and what you're going to 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 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,

experts in AI that you can bring into the classroom. So bringing that perspective and exposing, I mean, I was, 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 that 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, it,

Even companies are banning it. I mean, it's sort of like social media. 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 that we can't take that stance with AI all around in our education, in our profession. We've got to be open to it and we've got to get up to speed.

So we've covered a whole lot today, Stephanie, from some of the potential misuses and dangers 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 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?

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, you as a parent, 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 help educate yourself as a parent, help you have a better relationship with your kid. I don't know, you know, about you out there.

the parents out there listening, but you know, the homework health stuff really, you can put 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. And then again, preparation, you know, your kids are going to 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.

Hey, that's always what parents want to hear, right? How can we ensure the kids get out of the basement? Stephanie, this was a great conversation to have. I think it's important that we talk about this, you know, AI literacy and kind of how it plays into 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. Yeah, sure. Anytime. Thanks, Jordan. Thanks, Ryan. As a reminder, y'all, there is a lot.

there. We packed in a lot. Don't worry. If you miss anything, we're going to 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 youreverydayai.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, leave us a rating. And more importantly, please join us back tomorrow and every day for more Everyday AI. Thanks, y'all.

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