Untrained Isn't Incapable: AI and Today's Youth

Untrained Isn't Incapable: AI and Today's Youth (Unedited)

by: Jeremiah Dyke

The Generational Double Standard

Today, somewhere, someone will express their astonishment at how quickly the youth can navigate the technology around them only to then express how incapable the youth are. I offer the above observation not because these statements are mutually exclusive but because both positions seem to be held by nearly all parties commenting on today's "youth/AI crises" simultaneously. I offer the observation so that maybe an assured reader can become humble enough to indulge a different opinion. Maybe today's "youth/AI crises" is not a crisis at all.   

The 3-Way Deadlock

My core thesis is that it appears we have knowledgeable tech-unsavvy adults guilting unknowledgeable tech-savvy youth about their lack of knowledge and skill for the upcoming technological crises whereas the youth who-by definition- lack the requisite exposure to life's experiences are using that absent experience to express unfiltered paranoia regarding pending technological despondency. Meanwhile, the only group who possess both the technological know-how and the life experience required to make informed decisions with respect to the future conjunction of technology, AI and marketable human skillsets are huddled in Silicon Valley joined in holy algorithmic-matrimony. The only group qualified to help is incapable of suspending the incentive structure of algorithmic manipulation long enough to weigh in on the crisis.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that I'm right, but I am saying you're probably wrong.

Who is to blame?

There is no escaping the fact that most youth, on average, used the time savings that technology has given them in unproductive, if not hedonic, ways. There is no escaping the fact that most social media companies created complex attention algorithms designed for the sole purpose of renting our children's attention. There is no escaping the fact that most parents fully utilized the time afforded to them by the distracted adolescence for their own pleasures & purposes. Where does this leave us? This is not a throw away question.

Where From Here?

Maybe the youth are not in a state of skill crisis. Maybe, like a piece of sophisticated hardware, the youth are functioning with outdated, or possibly uninstalled, software. But if this truly is a software problem, where are the systems to patch or update what’s currently installed? Where are the installation guides? And if this is truly a hardware problem, where are the upgrade paths we’re supposed to be providing? If we don't know what or where the problem is how or why do we expect the user to fix it