Do we really need a little help from Gemini?
I’d like to think that human imperfections are better than a flawless creation generated by a computer...
Since the start of the Olympics, I have been spending a bit more time watching TV than I normally do. With this extra TV watching comes a dose of advertisements that I usually don’t see. One commercial in particular has really struck a nerve with me.
As with most commercials that are run during the Olympics, the theme is generally about inspiring others while advertising whatever it is the company is trying to sell. The commercial that continues to get under my skin is from Google. It is called “Dear Sydney”
The commercial starts off with a story that is sweet and captivating, narrated by a father talking of his little girl that looks to be about 10. The father describes how his daughter wants to grow up to be like her idol, track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. It swells up emotions in any parent that has hopes and dreams for their child or for those thinking back to their own childhood dreams of competing in the Olympics. Then the commercial takes a turn to the dark side, at least that is how I view it.
The father states that the letter needs to be “just right” and then asks Gemini, the Google AI program, to “Help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is and be sure to mention my daughter's plans on breaking her world record one day. (she says “sorry, not sorry”)”. This is the point I usually yell back at the screen saying something like “Ugh! Why do you need to use AI to do that” or “This is what’s wrong with society!” while my family rolls their eyes at me.
Some (uhm, my family) may say, it’s just a commercial and it doesn’t matter, but I disagree. I view it as a window into a society that is increasingly allowing programs or algorithms in a computer to determine how we think or feel. A society that relinquishes their ability to create their own work, to that of a computer program. A society that ultimately views any information generated by a computer must be better than if it were generated by a human. And that scares me.
Sadly, this mentality seems to be creeping into schools too. With the push to use edtech programs that are computer adaptive, some teachers are discounting their own ability to evaluate a child's performance in favor of what a computer program tells them. School districts unknowingly reinforce this type of thinking when they rely so heavily on data from these programs to then evaluate the teachers performance. It is a no win cycle, the ability to think freely is pushed aside as not reliable and the data gleaned from the program as the holy grail.
If that is not bad enough, just think about what is really being said to a child when we say that your letter needs to be “just right” therefore we need to use Gemini. Ultimately the underlying message that is being sent is… “You could write your own letter in your own words but you know what, Gemini is better at it, so let’s use that instead”. I fear that the next generation is learning to just default to what the computer tells them, no thinking of their own is needed.
Never mind the insidious message that is implied by using AI to generate a child’s letter to their athletic hero, think about all the critical skills that can be taught at that moment!
When my son was in first grade, he struggled adjusting to the long school day. He just wanted to be home playing. After many sad nights crying himself to sleep, we were talking at bedtime and he asked me who determined how long the school day was to which I responded , the superintendent. I then on a whim said to him, “want to write him a letter to tell him how you feel?” My son’s demeanor completely changed at that moment. He said, "Really, I can do that?”.
The next day, we sat at the kitchen table, crafting his letter. Since he was only 6, I let him dictate to me what he wanted to say and he then copied the words as neatly as he could on lined paper, making sure to spell all the words correctly. Later at the post office, he proudly took that letter and placed it in the mailbox slot with a look of determination. I’ll never forget the words he wrote:
Dear Superintendent Ricci,
The school day is too long. It makes me feel sad. Can you please make it shorter?
Sincerely,
A funny thing happened after mailing that letter, he no longer went to bed crying. He felt empowered, self confident and more importantly, a sense of agency. Sure, he still didn’t like being in school for 7 hours a day but the act of writing a letter and expressing his own thoughts allowed him to move forward. I don’t think my son would have had the same life lesson or experience if he had asked Google’s Gemini to write the letter for him.
Allowing kids to write their own letters by hand encourages many important developmental skills as well. It teaches motor skills such as handwriting and how to structure a letter. It teaches communication skills, social skills and perspective taking, since you need to think about the person you are sending the letter too. It teaches important cognitive skills and organizational skills along with creativity. The Opportunity to develop these skills are lost when we delegate it to an AI program.
Personally, I have started to notice when I see others use Chat GPT or other AI programs to write their emails or posts on social media. I can tell when the wording seems too perfect or the tone isn’t one that the writer usually uses. Although I can understand why people may resort to this, as it can save time when we are in a crunch, I still have a negative thought about it. I would rather see an imperfect email with maybe even a spelling error or forgotten capitol, because at least I would know that the person sending it actually wrote it themselves.
Now, imagine if the father in the commercial gave his daughter a piece of paper and a pencil instead. She would then have the opportunity to write her own heartfelt letter to her hero. Even if the letter wasn’t “just right” according to her dad, wouldn’t it be more meaningful and touching to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Would the letter be as elegant or articulate as Geminis? Maybe not but a child's imperfections are “just right” and genuine, which to me is way more valuable in a world where social and human connections are becoming much less real.