Should Kids Use AI Text Generators?, Best TV Shows to Binge Watch

How long does it take to write a masterpiece?

Answers will vary, but several great pieces of literature admittedly took a long time to write:

Margaret Mitchell spent 10 years penning her Southern epic, Gone with the Wind. Les Misérables—one of the longest novels ever written at a whopping 655,000 words—took Victor Hugo 12 years to write. And it was 17 years before J.R.R. Tolkien put a bow on his genre-defining Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Certainly, the length of time that it takes to write something isn’t a surefire indicator of its quality—after all, Charles Dickens crafted his timeless A Christmas Carol in only six weeks! But the commitment of time often speaks to the care and consideration that an author puts into his or her work.

Now, how long would it take artificial intelligence to write The Lord of the Rings? Or perhaps Moby Dick?

Forever, some might say, infinity plus one. Meaning, AI could never hope to create such resonant, enduring and, dare I say, human tales. I would tend to agree. But in terms of actually putting words on the page—er, computer screen—a generative AI text generator could likely pump out a couple thousand pages a day. To state the obvious, that’s a lot faster than 10 years.

This is the reality of AI text generators today. There’s a good chance you’ve at least heard about one of the bigger AI text generators on the market. ChatGPT alone had approximately 3.6 billion visits to its site just in October.

And not all these visits are from adults. Kids are using these free and easily accessible programs, too.

How Do AI Text Generators Work?

ChatGPT and other similar tools fall under the classification of “generative AI.” Generative AI, according to Harvard University, is “a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from and mimic large amounts of data to create content such as text, images, music, videos, code and more, based on inputs or prompts.”

To fulfill its function, an AI text generator must have a library of data to draw from—essentially, a collection of reference points. For text generators, that library would be filled with all sorts of writing samples, various styles to mimic and iterate on. When a user submits a request, the AI will use its references to output something to fulfill said request.

Generative AI & Writing

For the below example, I used the free version of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) available on the OpenAI website. I submitted the following prompt: “Write the first few sentences of an original fantasy story in the style of C.S. Lewis.”

Here’s what was provided:

“In the farthest corner of a world not so different from our own, where the trees whispered secrets only the wind could carry and the hills seemed to lean forward as if listening, there stood an ancient, ivy-covered tower. No one remembered who had built it, or why, but the people of the village below spoke of it in hushed tones, as though it might overhear them. Some said it was the dwelling of a forgotten king; others believed it to be a gateway to realms beyond imagining. For most, these stories were enough to keep them at a safe distance. But for Clara Wetherby, whose curiosity was always a little too big for her small boots, the tower was not just a mystery—it was an invitation.”

On the whole, not bad! The writing feels appropriate for a fantasy setting, with mentions of forgotten kings and ancient towers. And the characterization of Clara, with her big curiosity and small boots, feels like something that wouldn’t be out of place in one of Lewis’ Narnia books.

There are a few things that the AI text generator homed in on from my prompt to fulfill my request. The most important are that I was asking for a “fantasy story” and that it be “in the style of C.S. Lewis.”  The generator focused on those details, found references (including, presumably, the works of C.S. Lewis), mixed them together and then created an output to match my prompt.

This is important to note, because the capacities of AI text generators expand beyond just fiction. For instance, you could ask it to write essays or book reports in the style and grade level of your choosing. Knowing this, you can see why there have been concerns about kids using AI for their schoolwork.

Kids & AI Text Generators

We’ve referenced this a few times already, but it remains relevant: Common Sense Media put out a recent report stating that approximately 70% of teens have used generative AI tools. Not only that, but most teens have done so without their parents’ knowledge.

Parents should know if their children are using these tools and for what. Because ChatGPT and other AI text generators have a lot of potential, for good and bad.

AI Text Generators Can Be a Useful Tool …

AI text generators allow for the dissemination of information at incredible speed. Because of this, kids can learn a lot through a conversation with a tool like ChatGPT. Would they like to know about the layers of the rainforest? Or the day-to-day schedule of a medieval knight? AI generators are happy to answer those questions and more. Not only that, but they are extremely flexible, able to switch topics on a dime to keep pace with the vibrant curiosity of a young mind.

Now, whether the information the AI presents is totally correct is another question. Tools such as ChatGPT can be a helpful for research … within the right context. Generative AI is not perfect; at times it can become confused and “hallucinate” misinformation. It’s drawing from existing data, after all, and if some of those sources are incorrect, AI might output something faulty as well. So while you shouldn’t be citing anything you get from an AI text generator—they even make up nonexistent references at times—it can give kids a place to start. These tools often point in some good directions, if the user is willing to do their own further examination on the suggested topics.

Finally, kids could get some basic help from AI text generators to improve their own writing. Since these tools pull from a large dataset of writing samples, it can offer good suggestions, especially with grammar and sentence structure. That said, AI shouldn’t be the final or dominant voice. It should be supplementary. Just because a text generator made a suggestion doesn’t mean it’s “right.” Writing can be very subjective, and the changes an AI offers may not fit your child’s style, storyline or creative process.

… But Don’t Let Your Child Lose Their Voice

Working with a huge, melting pot of writing data is a double-edged sword. It can cause AI text generators to have a “lowest common denominator” effect, boiling down an author’s language into an algorithmic gumbo that, while technically sound, loses a lot of the flavor. God has given us all unique giftings. For those of us who write, we have a distinct “writing voice.” And children who have an overreliance on text generators might lose that unique writing voice—or never develop one in the first place.

Additionally, there is the danger to misuse these tools to create explicit or even dangerous content. While text generators generally have safeguards like other mainstream generative AI tools, they can be tricked into providing inappropriate responses, such as instructions on how to build a homemade bomb.

What Can Parents Do?

In short, get to know what programs your kids are using. Ask them about their thoughts on ChatGPT and similar tools, and if they have used them. If they have, ask about their experiences—what worked well and what didn’t. Offer to explore these tools together. You could come up with a story idea, or use the text generator to research a particular topic you’re both interested in. Get a sense for how the tool works and how your child is responding to it. This will give you an opportunity to establish intentional boundaries according to what you’ve observed.

Another benefit of familiarizing yourself with AI text generators is that it may help you spot AI-generated text in other areas. Generative AI is not going away any time soon, so it can be beneficial for you (and your kids) to be able to recognize when you’re reading something written by AI.

As a parent, you can help your child take a successful approach to artificial intelligence—how and when to use it, or whether to use it at all.