Tip of the Week

February 14, 2023

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DR. SEUSS, AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION

By now you’ve likely heard of the many tech companies competing to make artificial intelligence (AI) available to the general public. If you don’t know a lot about AI (and this writer falls into that camp but is learning), think of it as a computer’s ability to think and learn, and to do things that traditionally require human intelligence. You might also think of AI as an optimized search engine. Yet, beyond providing links to articles or websites of possible interest, AI responds to queries directly, as if in conversation, with the ability to analyze and understand that information in a more comprehensive way. Conventional wisdom says AI will soon become a part of our daily lives, though it is still in its infancy and imperfect.

At Engaging Minds we are intrigued by AI as it has implications for education. There are certainly many positive implications for education, but also some controversial ones. To address a number of our questions, we turned directly to ChatGPT, an AI developed by OpenAI, which recently received a multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft. Please link to our blog to review its responses and learn more – it’s fascinating!

As an exercise and example of what it can do, we asked ChatGPT to create a fun #TuesdayTip for the upcoming vacation week. The following poem comes directly from artificial intelligence with no human edits.

EM request:
Write a poem about fun activities over school vacation that help strengthen executive function skills and in Dr. Seuss style.

AI response:
Vacation’s here, a time for glee,
A break from school, for you and me!

We’ll play and laugh and dance with joy,
But let’s not forget to strengthen our brain, oh boy!

Here are some activities, I suggest with cheer,
That’ll help your executive skills, they’ll grow stronger, have no fear!

Try a puzzle, big or small,
It’ll help you focus and give your brain a call.

Go on a hike, explore and roam,
It’ll boost your memory and help you focus, oh home!

Plan a meal, cook with glee,
It’ll teach you time management, and creativity.

Volunteer, lend a hand,
It’ll show you empathy, and help you understand.

Practice mindfulness, breathe and meditate,
It’ll calm your mind and help you concentrate.

So let’s have fun, and use our brain,
With these activities, we’ll never go insane!

Remember, vacation’s not just for play,
It’s also a chance to grow and learn each day!

Please note that just like information found on the internet, ChatGPT can be misleading, inaccurate, or provide false information and it is still being developed. Its results require critical human thinking. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said: “ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now.” That said, if you’d like to test it out, link to the AI website ChatGPT and see how it works.

#TipTuesday