How parents can chat to their kids about ChatGPT and AI

AI can make us parents a little nervous right? 

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard some of the incredible things that people are doing with AI (ChatGPT and MidJourney are two of the more common generative AI platforms that people are talking about at the moment), but it can also get a little overwhelming when you have no idea where to start, or what you’re supposed to be doing with it. 

And then you hear that many schools and workplaces are banning AI because kids are using it to plagarise, and let's face it, sometimes it's easier just to put our head in the sand and pray it all just goes way. 

It's not going away... And the worst thing that parents (and schools) can do is to ban our kids from using it. AI is here to stay and so helping your child understand the positive and negatives will be far more beneficial. (How Parents Can Talk About AI and ChatGPT With Their Kids - The New York Times)

So... before you go and put your head in the sand with this one, why not explore it together as a family. Seriously, just sign up for a free account and then start feeding it some prompts.. 

Here's a story of what's been happening in our home this week...

My husband is a graphic designer and has been playing around with MidJourney.

 MidJourney is a text to image AI software which basically creates original artwork based on the prompts you feed it - as a graphic designer, you could understand if my husband was a bit nervous about this… 

But - as my colleague and co-founder of Future Smart Parent, Graeme Codrington says:

"AI tools will not replace our jobs, but people who use AI tools in their jobs will replace those who don’t"

So no - Gavin is fully diving in, and it’s a magical thing to see unfold… not just for his own creative joy, (yes really), but also watching him show our kids the technology and the conversations that have come from their sessions together… 

They ended down a proper MidJourney rabbit hole yesterday -  and an hour and a half later I was being asked to print about 14 pages of cars that my 10-year-old son had designed by giving MidJourney a variety of prompts. .

• Learning new prompts  ✅
• Having his mind blown that he can ask a computer to create an 'off road fast car, with bright colors, in Tokyo, and a few seconds later he had an image, with multiple variatiions... ✅
• Having some great conversations about the pros and cons of the computers being able to do all this... ✅
• Seeing their creativity explode the further down the rabbit hole they both went. ✅
   

If this is all brand new to you, or sounds a little overwhelming and you're not too sure what it's all about, then there are a couple of options to get started:

1. Click through some of the links below and just start to explore and play

• ChatGPT - https://chat.openai.com/chat
• MidJourney - https://www.midjourney.com/app/
• Dall-E - images and art - https://labs.openai.com/ 

Here's a great article to get you started with some prompts in ChatGPT... 

2. Hit YouTube and spend a few hours with your kids learning about Generative AI to get started.

3. Sign up for the replay of our fascinating webinar, hosted by Graeme Codrington, where he shared his research, practical examples, case studies as well as some of the 'why' we need to embrace this innovation and how it'll work for us and our kids.

You can either purchase the replay for $27 or sign up to become a founding member of the Future Smart Parent Club to access the replay, as well as our monthly list of AI prompts, tips, tricks and examples to get you really using these tools to their best potential.

Sign up to become a founding member of the Future Smart Parent Club for a monthly list of AI prompts, tips, tricks and examples to get you really using these tools to their best potential.

You'll also get access to other webinars, and parenting tools to help you parent, and your kids thrive, in the 2020s and beyond.

Membership is available to our founding members for just $7 a month, and you're welcome to cancel at any time.