In the past few years, AI has become far more advanced. From work environments to social media, AI can be found in almost every aspect of modern life. Even in comparison to just five years ago, the availability of AI technology for the average person is much larger than it used to be. As AI continues to increase its capacity for learning, communicating, and problem-solving, the future of how we learn, communicate, and problem-solve as well is being put into question. As a teen/young adult, AI is entering realms of my life that seemed impossible just a few years ago. In this article, I will cover a few recent advancements in AI that have had the greatest impact on teens, detailing their impact and what their expansion might mean for the future.
The most visible contribution of AI to young adulthood is in the realm of education: namely, software such as ChatGPT. Using ChatGPT, students can input a question or statement such as “Give me a summary of George Washington’s Presidency” to which the software will instantly respond with exactly that. If the answer is not to the user’s satisfaction, they can ask the software to provide more information on certain parts of the answer, such as “explain why Alexander Hamilton was important to George Washington’s Presidency”. Now, ChatGPT is not only for students trying to quickly get work done, as many have used the software as an equivalent to a search engine. Asking the software questions one would normally ask a search engine yields similar answers from both. However, the increased use of ChatGPT for student work has caused concern for teachers worldwide.
In WHS specifically, many teachers utilize AI detection software through Google Classroom or sites such as turnitin.com, which can flag certain parts of a student’s writing if it seems to be created by AI or maybe from another source. This has caused some conflict in class, as even minor AI programs such as Grammarly, which mainly focuses on grammar, spelling, and punctuation, are flagged. On top of this, the AI detection software may sometimes flag parts of a student’s writing that were not influenced by AI or plagiarized.
All in all, the AI detection being used in WHS and worldwide is important in making sure students are honest in their work; however, there are certainly some quirks that need to be ironed out. As AI software becomes more advanced, though, human writing patterns may be better replicated and could potentially become undetectable to AI detection programs. ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and has since received multiple updates to improve its communication abilities. In truth, AI’s ability to be near-perfect replicas of human writing patterns is more a matter of when than a matter of if. This will undoubtedly change the realm of education.
Beyond academics, AI has had a large impact in the realm of social media. The most common use of AI on sites such as TikTok or YouTube has been automated voice generators. Mostly, these programs are being used for comedic purposes at the moment, such as videos of Trump and Biden singing songs together or pop culture characters, like Spongebob Squarepants, playing video games. These videos are undoubtedly funny, but the potential for these programs to be used negatively is also very present. Scrolling online, videos sometimes pop up of popular figures saying things that they would never say otherwise (mostly hurtful/hateful comments). Obviously, to someone who is very aware of AI online, these videos are clearly fake. But, to someone less aware of the power of AI text-to-speech, the potential for misinformation is high.
In tandem with AI’s ability to replicate peoples’ voices, it can also create videos out of images or text prompts. AI videos can often circulate of two individuals fighting, as was the case recently with the 2024 “Wicked” cast, where AI videos showed the two film’s lead actresses, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, in a fight. Other fake videos have circulated and caused conflict, such as celebrities’ faces being pasted onto videos which put them in negative or compromising situations. As AI becomes more advanced, social media users must be more cautious when receiving news or watching videos, as the truth behind them may be questionable. On top of this, AI users (bots) have become more widespread on many platforms, creating what some theorists refer to as the “Dead Internet”, or the idea that these bots cause changes in social media algorithms to manipulate users. The truth of this idea is not solid; however, the amount of bots on social media has certainly increased dramatically over the years.
In conclusion, in a world where Artificial Intelligence has gained increased levels of knowledge and accessibility, its consequences on future generations are becoming more clear. Schools may continue to revert work back to paper and pencil, while social media becomes an ever-changing environment where users must become more careful of the content they consume. Growing up alongside AI, the future of the internet and how we may interact with the world around us is unknown. But, I will say that we must continue to be aware of AI’s potential for good and bad in the world, and remain open-minded in discussing how we move forward with AI.
