According to a report released today by Common Sense Media, seven out of ten youth in the United States have used conceptual AI equipment. To determine the size and shapes of AI implementation among teenagers, the volunteer analyzed survey responses from US parents and high schoolers between March and May 2024. More than half of the students surveyed had used AI-generated results from search engines like Google+ and ChatGPT, as well as ai and language editors. Around 34 percentage had used picture producers like DALL-E, and 22 percent had used picture producers.
The US adolescents are embracing AI at a similar rate to peers in the UK, where the Office of Communications discovered later last year that four in five teens used conceptual AI equipment. In an earlier statement on youth and AI released by Common Sense Media in June, it also demonstrates that the adoption rate is increasing. Based on responses from the end of 2023, only about half the interviewees had used conceptual AI.
The most common reason for using AI was school-related, more than half reported using it for “homework enable”, mainly in “brainstorming tips”. ( Older teens were more likely than younger ones to do so. ) The next most-common explanation was good, conventional boredom, followed by translating information from one language to another. One in five teenagers had used generative AI to make fun of themselves with friends.
The findings of the survey show just how difficult and confusing educational institutions are right now. Six in 10 teens reported that their school either did n’t have AI rules, or they did n’t know what those rules were. Nearly the same percentage of teenagers reported using AI without their teacher’s permission as the percentage of people reported using it with their educator’s permission. There is no clear emerging standard for whether teachers should embrace or reject AI use. More than 80 percent of parents said that their child’s school “had not communicated” anything about generative AI. Only 4 percent of schools in the area approved generative AI. ” We’re seeing an almost paralysis from schools”, says Common Sense head of research Amanda Lenhart.
Teachers ‘ conversations about AI use tended to have an impact on how the students perceived the technology. Teenagers” truly listen and learn,” Lenhart claims, noting that educators who gave them instructions were more likely to comprehend how the technology worked and to determine whether it was producing factually accurate sentences. ” It makes a big difference”.
One notable finding of the survey was how unsure many parents are about whether their children are using generative AI. Only 37 percent of parents who had children using AI devices were aware of this. Nearly a quarter of parents who had children using AI devices mistakenly believed they were n’t. The majority of parents had not spoken to their children about AI.
Parents who responded had concerns that the development of generative AI tools might have an impact on their children’s writing and critical thinking abilities. Parents were divided about how these tools would affect research skills, and more than a quarter said they anticipated AI tools to help their kids generate ideas.
In contrast to their white and Latino peers, teachers are more than twice as likely to accuse Black students of using generative AI in their assignments. In these situations, teachers frequently used AI detection software to identify obscene documents. This suggests that teachers ‘ use of AI and software to detect it may be contributing to the report’s findings that are exacerbating existing discipline disparities among historically underrepresented groups, including Black students.
Despite this, both Black teenagers and their parents have more optimistic views of how AI is used in education than their white and Latino peers. What’s more, the study suggests that Black teenagers, as well as Latino teenagers, are more enthusiastic and experimental users of these tools than their white peers, reporting significantly higher rates of adoption for a wide variety of activities, from creating joking content to share with friends, to using AI as a companion. ( Over a quarter of Black teenagers said that they used AI to “keep me company”, compared to 11 percent of white teenagers. )
Teenagers generally report mixed feelings about AI, but this research suggests one thing for certain: the majority of teens are convinced that understanding how to use this technology is a necessity. More than half of the students said they believed that learning to use generative AI tools from kindergarten through grammar school should be required.
Administrators and teachers who do n’t know what to do,” I’m sympathetic to them,” Lenhart says,” but we can see from the data that it’s crucial to start talking about this.” You ca n’t shove it to the side and hope it disappears.
