Should a 5-year-old be using ChatGPT to learn?

The short answer is no. Using generative AI to learn is not just ineffective, but it can also actually set you back.

- Sandra Davie

Recently, a grandparent posed this question in an e-mail to me: "Should my five-year-old granddaughter be using ChatGPT to learn spelling or mathematics?"

I wrote back to the retired school teacher asking for details on how exactly her granddaughter was using ChatGPT.

Mrs Tan, as she referred to herself, said that her granddaughter often uses ChatGPT on her parents' phones or her iPad to ask questions such as how to spell a word or what is 2 + 2 and she would then repeat the answers given by the generative AI chatbot.

"And everyone would praise her for being so clever and I am not sure if they are referring to her being able to use AI or reciting the answers ChatGPT gives her," said the grandmother. Having taught for over 20 years in a primary school, she had her doubts if indeed her granddaughter was really learning how to spell and count.

She had also noticed that her oldest grandson, a 15-year-old, was routinely using ChatGPT for his homework, including essays, although he claimed it was just to create outlines for his essays.

COMPROMISING THE BASICS

Mrs Tan is right to feel uneasy. We often hear people extolling the benefits of using generative AI tools in education, from customized or personalized learning to providing real-time feedback to students. But there are many downsides when it comes to how children and the youth, including university students, are using AI to learn. Already there is early research suggesting that it is affecting young people's ability to think critically and learn independently.

Let's take the five-year-old for one, who is asking an AI chatbot to spell words out to her and do simple addition.

Literacy experts say it sets her back in her learning journey.

As one literacy expert explained - the child is probably learning to spell the word through rote memorization.