Sarah MacDonald shares why it’s important for kids to recognize AI images.
The other day, I showed my 10-year-old daughter an Instagram post — a striking image of a mama bird shielding her chicks in the rain. Three baby chicks huddled together as their mother held out her jet-black feathers, a natural umbrella sheltering them from the storm.
“That’s AI, Mom,” she said. On closer inspection, I realized she was probably right. I asked how she knew. I expected something about the lighting or the dew drops. Instead, she said, “Mom, a mama bird wouldn’t sit in the rain with her babies. She’d be in the nest. Birds just don’t do that.”
I puffed with maternal pride. Last year, she had rescued a little bird we named “Birdie.” She nursed it back to health, and we worked with Napa Wildlife Rescue to release it back into the wild. So, when she recognized that the image was fake, I suggested it was because of “Birdie.” Because she’d held a real bird in her hand, felt its heartbeat and watched it fly away.
In a world where AI is increasingly sophisticated, these kinds of real-world experiences matter. I never expected to have to teach her how to spot fake images, but by spending time outdoors, with birds, lizards and even snakes, she learned something no algorithm could teach.