It could be a common situation in any home in the not-too-distant future: a 12-year-old child has to do a class project about the arrival of the Romans in Spain. To do this, he has to look for the most appropriate information, read it, process it and, once he has understood it, he will have to sit down and write. This entire process involves a major task that involves reading comprehension, the ability to synthesize, writing and memorization, among other attitudes. However, you can skip all of this by consulting ChatGPT, reading the summary, and using the chatbot conversational to copy and paste. The question then would be: Is it good, responsible, for children to use artificial intelligence to do their homework?
Manuel Antonio Fernández is neuropediatrician and founder of the Andalusian Institute of Pediatric Neurology (INANP) and believes that when it comes to understanding how to develop the processes of the educational system, especially in the early stages of life, “we should be fully aware of how the nervous system works in general, and the brain in particular.” And he adds: “In addition, we should be able to understand that its development is an extremely complex process influenced by a multitude of factors, whose impact, both qualitative and quantitative, changes over time.”
The brain, despite its complex processes, presents a series of basic principles that are easily understandable. “Learning is based on the spaced repetition of experiences of all kinds. Science tells us that we need, on average and roughly, 21 repetitions to be able to assimilate a certain concept correctly. For example, the number of practical classes included in the packages “What they offer when we get our driving license is around that figure,” explains Fernández. “Twenty-one is the general number that our nervous system needs to create a new connection between different functional areas and neurons in our brain,” says the neuropediatrician. “And this is basic: when we are able to assimilate learning, to internalize it, it becomes a habit, something that we will be able to automate through unconscious mechanisms… And this favors more efficient and better quality functioning in activities.” of daily life,” he explains.
Based on all this reasoning, Fernández believes that it is not about prohibiting the use of ChatGPT for children, but about knowing how to use it in the correct way to complement the educational plan, allowing the brain to carry out these basic procedures. For him, it can be a useful tool when learning has been previously internalized: “Because if the brain does not work, it stops dedicating energy, resources and materials to the development of the circuits and mechanisms that make up the learning structures. Basically, it adapts to the conditions of the environment, which, unfortunately, can work against us. Our capabilities are atrophied,” he warns. For this expert, the important thing is not the age at which artificial intelligence (AI) begins to be used, but rather the incorporation strategy: “Young children can use these types of tools, but always under the direct supervision of an adult, even in the preschool age, working consciously and constructively to take advantage of creativity and the possibilities it offers us.” “The question here is whether adults are prepared to be responsible for the implementation of these technologies,” he continues, “when no one has given us the information and tools necessary to do so.”
“Most teachers and parents think that children would use ChatGPT as they would, that is, to cheat, when in reality AI is a super powerful self-learning tool and does not replace memorization,” adds Mercedes Gil Hernández, director of the Montessori British school in Madrid. What’s more, for the philologist, it can help you, for example, with multiplication tables and adapts to your way of learning: “With sound, with music, with Pokémon… Various AI agents can adapt the learning environment to make it more optimum. For example, there are several languages that use algorithms based on neuroscience and patterns that they deduce from conversations with the user to achieve maximum performance.
The philologist reiterates that it is not a threat at all: “AI represents a leap in the capacity for learning and advancement, as the printing press and the Internet once were.” “We, teachers, use AI to check our learning, in a conversational way, and it reinforces the knowledge that we have somewhat weak, and saves us from having to go back over what we already know.” In addition, she adds that it also helps children and adolescents write in several different ways, guiding them in multiple tasks such as programming or cooking, among other subjects: “It has very diverse and interesting applications to support learning. We can feed AI with any content.” Gil explains that, yes, we must educate the generation that will use it as a tool: “It is a great opportunity.”
“My profession leads me to be an expert in strategic management in the organizations with which I work, but also as a parent of teenagers I must help them define the keys that affect their future. And AI is one of them,” says Alejandro San Nicolás, AI consultant for companies since 2007 and professor of the Master of Finance at the International University of Valencia. San Nicolás explains that one of the exercises he does with his children is to imagine what the world will be like in 2040 and one of the recurring themes, as he recognizes, is that of AI and how it will impact their daily reality in the future: “ I have to say that as a parent, teacher and expert, the first decision to make is how much effort we are going to invest in denying the reality that the process is unstoppable. “It is not a passing fad,” he maintains.
For him, AI is the social phenomenon that has had the fastest adoption in history: “It has been faster than the internet, the web, than email.” “So the debate is settled from my point of view. Living with our backs to reality will not be positive for our generation or for that of our children,” he assures. San Nicolás maintains that this is a super powerful tool that will allow minors to be more efficient and work with more solid knowledge, achieving their objectives in a more effective way: “It is important that we understand that helping with this or any AI tool will help them. “It will allow us to be more competitive and be more prepared for the society of the future.”
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