Durable Human

The day after I saw The AI Doc: or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, I felt strangely buoyant. Maybe we can steer the future in the right direction. I began to see reasons for hope. All this happened after the movie’s release: The family of a young man shot to death at Florida State University is suing OpenAI, claiming Chat GPT helped the killer plan the attack. After viewing the victim’s chat logs, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened a criminal investigation.

This is a synopsis of The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist: A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created…and what’s at stake if we get it wrong. The following review tells the whole story.

They may be cute. They may be clever. But they’re not good gifts for kids. Child health experts warn not to buy children’s toys that use artificial intelligence.

For little ones, nothing can match their parents’ human touch. So says an unprecedented 37-nation alliance of clinicians, researchers, educators, and advocates. The group cites a gush of new research supporting an age-old notion: parents and caregivers provide the back-and-forth responsive attention and play that children need in their first years of life—and screen time can’t compare. Babyhood is unique in that it is the only time in life the human brain is growing so quickly.

It may be tempting to want to please a child pleading for a shiny, new smartphone. But if you’re a grandparent, family friend, or any loved one who is not the child’s parent, granting that wish could do more harm than good. Read on for the scary reasons why and for a list of non-tech gifts kids will also be excited to receive. I’ve always held that giving a child a cellphone has more strings attached than the coolest pair of sneakers. But looking back, this 2014 post seems quaint and innocent.

Though it seems little kids everywhere are on hand-held screens, scientists are just catching up with effects that digital devices have on growing minds. A new study adds to increasing concerns for preschool parents. Turns out that mobile device use can interfere with how preschool-aged children learn to manage their emotions. The more time on screens, the more a child tends to struggle with anger and frustration.

“Technology is just not adding value in the classroom.” Heads nodded among the teachers filling our audience at SXSW EDU 2024. In the massive Austin, Texas conference center—where sessions seemed All About A.I.—our talk, “Log-off and Learn: Healing the Broken Classroom,” stood apart.

The Screen Aware Early Childhood Kit is a game changer for caregivers of young children who’ve lacked the words and wherewithal to talk with daycares, schools, babysitters, and relatives about the role of screens. It’s so satisfying to have the right tool for the right job. A flathead won’t do when you need a phillips screwdriver. Plyers are different from a wrench. But since the arrival of digital devices, parents have had precious few tools to work with.

Everybody loves seeing babies wave bye-bye and say their first words. But those skills are coming more slowly to many babies born during the pandemic, according to new research in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Social isolation, household stress, and child or parent screen overuse are some reasons why experts believe babies may have had fewer face-to-face interactions at the height of COVID. As a result, the babies heard fewer words spoken by parents and other loved ones.

Especially with the arrival of ChatGPT and other artificially intelligent helpers, if you want to be a durable human, you need to know how you differ from machines. For starters, you are completely one-of-a-kind, whereas machines can be duplicated endlessly. You’re also a powerhouse of resources, starting with your masterful palette of senses. Sure, that’s the Famous Five, but also intuition, compassion, humor, and muscle memory, to name just a few. Children embody the all-important sense of wonder.