AI Spiders

“In the spider-web of facts, many a truth is strangled.” ~Paul Eldridge

We are living in a curious age, one where the reality of what we see and read is tangled with webs spun by algorithms. Generative AI, like a sci-fi Pandora’s box, is out in the world, conjuring both wonder and worry. It’s not the evil Terminator we once imagined, but it isn’t going back in the box, either. Now, our task as educators and parents is not to shield our children from AI but to teach them how to navigate this ever-changing digital landscape. This means using AI responsibly and ensuring we don’t cross any ethical lines.

Our children will grow up with the ability to summon persuasive videos, songs, images, and text. How can we trust anything in this post-truth world?

The answer may be to raise our children as savvy digital detectives. Let’s arm them with the skills to evaluate information with a healthy dose of skepticism. Let’s show them how to sift through the web of knowledge without getting entangled. They’ll learn to ask: “Who made this? How can they prove it? What’s their motive? Does this voice sound auto-tuned? Does this photo have any AI watermarks? Does the principal’s blog post contain the literary fingerprints of AI, or did he write it by hand?” As teachers, we already ask these questions of student work produced outside the classroom!

North Cross International Education Foundation supports equipping children with the ability to detect the AI “spiders” of misinformation and to use AI as a powerful assistant in their learning journey. Either we wield AI with character and intention, or we risk being controlled by it unwittingly.