As we all know, AI - artificial intelligence - is all the rage right now. Plenty of companies have been using it for years, but now it's available to anyone who can use a computer.
Copywriters, graphic designers, web coders, and others are worried that their jobs 
are going to go away. And some jobs - the ones that don't require a degree of human thought and creativity - probably will.
I've been looking in to this a lot, because the copywriting gurus say Chat GPT is a good tool, even for copywriters, if you know how and when to use it. I explored that question in When and Why People Need Human Copywriters, on my blog this week.
What really has me wondering...
A concerning question popped into my head this morning, and it has to do with the education of our young people.
We know that kids are using AI to write essays for school. Some are using it for term papers and I expect some will be using it for their Master's Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation. After all there is a segment of the population that will take the easy route, even if it's illegal, immoral, unethical - or just plain cheating.
We also know that more and more schools are failing to teach grammar. Between that and the rise of texting, the ability to communicate clearly is falling by the wayside for many.
Since a lot of children don't like writing, I expect some will try to fall back on AI to handle basic communication for them. Can you see Junior going to AI and asking it to write a thank you note to Grandma for a Birthday gift? I'm willing to bet that a few will try! (That is, if parents still teach kids to write thank you notes.)
But here's the Catch: You need good grammar to use ChatGPT successfully.
From what I've been reading - users must write in complete sentences, with 
correct grammar, if they want AI to understand what they want. (Hmmm... just like real people!)
It might be fun to read some of the essays that get turned in for school assignments in the next year or so. Since AI can only answer what it understands to be the question, and since it can't distinguish between truth and fiction, we might learn that the moon really IS made of green cheese!
Someone needs to tell the schools!
Clear communication is important. Without it, we're all just in a big mess of misunderstanding. So - schools should demand that teachers teach grammar - and insist on kids using good grammar even in history, geography, and science classes.
A 3rd grade teacher once told me that she did not correct children's grammar in school because it would be insulting to the parents. I was speechless at that one.
Also, I think it should be a condition of continued employment that those teachers who don't use good grammar go back and take classes until they learn. Then they should be able to pass a simple grammar exam.
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