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Dear Friend,
When it comes to technology, I’m admittedly a late adopter. I carried a flip phone for years while fellow reporters were dialing sources on iPhones. To this day I’ve never asked a single question of ChatGPT. My interactions with artificial intelligence have mostly been limited to Siri and the “AI Overview” feature of Google, which now pops up unsolicited when I search the web.
It’s not that I dislike tech. But the pessimistic side of me reasons thusly: If I’ve gotten along fine without the latest gadgetry until now, why bother? I’d just be wasting my time.
Unsurprisingly, many teens and young adults don’t share my view. They’re quickly finding AI to be an efficient way to obtain information and, for the less conscientious, an unauthorized tool for completing high school homework and college essays. But these same youth also have a lot to lose: If you can ask a chatbot to do your homework, after all, what are really gaining by being at school?
You may be surprised to discover, though, that some teachers see value in bringing AI into the classroom, whether to assist in lesson prep, or to aid students in problem-solving. Grace Snell’s cover story in the new issue of WORLD Magazine explores this timely topic. In it, you’ll hear from teachers who have alternately either attempted to make their classrooms AI-proof, or who aim to teach their students how to use the new technology ethically without letting it do their thinking for them.
After Grace’s story, you’ll also read an essay by a concerned middle-school teacher who describes how her students are turning to AI to cheat, completing homework and assignments for them. Some just don’t want to the do the work, and others are genuinely afraid of failure. The AI revolution isn’t coming—it’s arrived, and teachers and students are among the first to grapple with the consequences.
Also in this issue, Emma Freire reports on the “Make America Healthy Again” movement promoted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In Emma’s story, you’ll read about the MAHA moms who are helping drive the movement and whether it can truly help cure what ails America.
Please read on for more highlights from the August issue of WORLD.
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