AI for Kids

How Digital Literacy Helps You Stay Safe Online & Spot Deepfakes (Middle+)

• Amber Ivey (AI) • Season 2 • Episode 8

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In this episode of AI for Kids, we dive into AI for good, digital literacy, and internet safety with Geoff Livingston, founder of Cognitive Path! From how AI is shaping the world to the importance of critical thinking and digital responsibility, this conversation will help kids and parents understand how to navigate the digital world safely.

🎙️ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How AI can help people and businesses (and why it’s important to use it for good)
âś… The importance of digital literacy and how to spot fake information
âś… Why history and literature can be just as important as STEM in a tech career
âś… The impact of AI on social media and marketing
âś… How kids can protect their personal data and be mindful of online interactions
âś… Fun AI trivia and a game of Two Truths and a Dream!

🚀 Why This Matters:
AI is becoming a huge part of our lives, from learning tools to rescue missions. Kids and parents need to stay informed and prepared for the digital world while learning to ask the right questions and think critically about the information they see online.

đź”— Resources Mentioned:

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Amber Ivey:

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hi everyone, welcome back to AI for Kids. Today we have an amazing guest. Welcome, Geoff Livingston, founder of Cognitive Path. Geoff, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you started Cognitive Path?

Geoff Livingston:

Hey, ai. First of all, it's good to see you. I feel blessed because I've seen you twice in a month because we were both at a government AI conference, so it's good to always talk with you. Same here I started Cognitive Path with my partner, greg. We really wanted to help people adopt AI. There's a lot of confusion about that, not just for kids and folks that are recreationally using it, but also within the business world, and we want to kind of hasten that, and we also wanted to make sure that we were empowering people to use AI for good, if that makes sense, yeah.

Amber Ivey:

Oh yeah In your mind. What is this AI for good concept?

Geoff Livingston:

Well, to me, I feel like AI can reduce pain pain at work, you know, like those horrible tasks, pain in studies. In some ways, it can help people achieve tasks and goals faster. It can even help us run. It could do a lot of things that are beneficial. It could detect diseases a little bit faster than a doctor might. So there's a lot of really interesting applications that can go on and on and on. But at the same time, like all things, it can be used to maybe take advantage of folks, and we don't want to use our skills and knowledge for that.

Amber Ivey:

So when you were a kid, what was your favorite subject and did you always like this whole idea of like technology and marketing?

Geoff Livingston:

My favorite subject was actually literature. I actually went undergrad literature and history. It was really close, but both of them were stories. Right Like one is factual or theoretically factual, depending on your perspective of history. Theoretically factual, depending on your perspective of history. Whoever wins tells their version of it. But I love stories and I love reading, and I could spend hours in my room just reading, reading, reading, and so for me that was my love.

Amber Ivey:

What about technology? You're now in technology. How did you get there? Where did that come from?

Geoff Livingston:

technology. How did you get there? Like, where did that come from? Well, my dad's a bit of a geek, okay, and I'm a geek, I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it. But you know, like we didn't have like a ton of money. It was a single family. My parents got along fine, but you know, we just worked together, so he didn't have a ton of money. But you know, if a new computer came out, all of a sudden there's this Apple IIe on my desk and he's like this is a PC, it's the future. You should learn it.

Geoff Livingston:

And we had one of the first game machines and we had one of the first cable sets. And so I kind of inherited this love for technology. And my first job was with the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs CES, which is a huge consumer technology show. I was an intern there and I got sent to Vegas for CES and I'm walking the show floors and there's like Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses walking the floor of this, like they're next to game machines and all this other thing. I'm like this is the coolest thing on earth. I've been in technology ever since.

Amber Ivey:

I love that thing. I'm like this is the coolest thing on earth. I've been in technology ever since. I love that story. I did not know this about you. That's super cool. You talked about like literature and history, because it's so interesting. When I do these conversations with people, you always expect people to say math. Then people say things like literature, history or these other things, languages and things like that. So it's so cool that people find their path not just by the traditional ways that we think it should be right. We think it's science, math, technology only, but it's also these other things.

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, it's cool and you never know what people are going to love. For example, my kids just love science and math. They're applying to a magnet school locally, so we'll see what happens. But you know, everybody's their own person.

Amber Ivey:

And then, if you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Geoff Livingston:

I think my superpower would probably be the ability to spread kindness. There's a lot of people in the world that struggle. We all struggle. That's part of life. But we should ease people's suffering a little bit and make that journey a little bit easier. And I love coaching people. It's one of my little fortes and I love helping people. As you can tell, I started a company to help people, love this, being on a podcast like this. So if we can help people, make it easier for them, make them feel a little more sense of calm about doing things, then I've succeeded.

Amber Ivey:

I love that because I feel like that is a superpower. You do walk in fully and I just appreciate getting to know you and always feeling that around you. So thank you for that.

Geoff Livingston:

You don't know me very well then.

Amber Ivey:

You make me feel safe, so I feel good.

Geoff Livingston:

About 80% of the time. Then there's the other 20%.

Amber Ivey:

I'm fine with the 80-20. We all have our 80-20. You can't do it all the time. But yeah every interaction I've had has always been pleasant, so I appreciate it. I'll just avoid you during the 20%. So you worked on some really cool projects in digital marketing. Can you tell us about one of the coolest things you've done there? And also can you also define what is digital marketing for those who may not understand that topic or may have never heard of it before?

Geoff Livingston:

Yes, so back in the day when there was this fictional character called Don Draper.

Geoff Livingston:

You know, before the computers, before the internet, you know we would read books. I mean, I still read books, but maybe it's just because I'm an old bogey, but even my kid reads books. They like that. Maybe they picked it up from their folks. But everything the news, newspapers, everything was print advertisements, magazines. Maybe you would see it on a TV, but generally everything was in print. A lot of money was going into direct mail and all this stuff. So when the internet broke and then the worldwide web broke, all of a sudden we can have digital advertising, we have email marketing, so that to me is really digital media and marketing, with us selling ideas and concepts through those electronic media. Maybe the best way to bring it down to earth is to say your smartphone is probably the best example of that, maybe your game device, maybe your streaming device, whatever it is that you use at home, the coolest project You're going to like this one. Okay, all right.

Geoff Livingston:

So I had an old boss and it's important to keep relationships and she called me up and she said Geoff, I got this gig for you and I'm like oh yeah, what is it? She goes, just a project, I can only pay you X. I'm like, oh okay, well, what is it? She goes, so we're documenting a carbon offset program for Audi USA. I'm like, okay, and she goes we have to fly you to Utah to photograph and photo journal and blog a dumpster like literally a landfill, a landfill and document how they turn it into methane and take that methane and turn it to energy.

Geoff Livingston:

And then she goes and this is part of the price, but we'll cover your travel and then we have to fly you to Kenya and I'm like what she goes, we have to fly you to Kenya and you have to photograph this village, right, and what they've done is they've stopped deforesting for energy and they've now harvest their trees and limbs and they create carbon bricks to create energy. And in addition to that, they're protecting the wildlife there against poachers just using long sticks, you know, like little staffs and things like that, no guns or anything. So I had to document these two carbon offset programs. It was amazing, like, first of all, the dumpster smelled really bad and I almost threw up, but I did it and it was still kind of cool to see that. But then getting to see Africa and these amazing people I mean just if you think you know nice people, you know you got to go there I mean these people were incredible and this nature preserve was amazing I do think Africa changed my perspective of the world completely.

Amber Ivey:

Oh wow. That's absolutely amazing to see different ways that's happening across two different continents, different cultures. That is cool. I really appreciate you for sharing that one, because I have a friend right now she's working on the continent and helping African cities. She was doing it in the S and got the opportunity to go over to the continent. It's been working with cities and she says the same thing has completely changed her life. Her worldview is very different and it just reminds me of how important it is for us to get out of our bubble sometimes, whether even if it's just our city or where we live like to see something else, to try other things, so that we can have perspectives.

Geoff Livingston:

Right. And you know, what's funny is I mean, we saw cool things too, like we had an elephant charge us, but really how people think about water, right. And then you look at people in America today with their Stanley cups. I think probably middle schoolers could identify with that in high schoolers. I mean, is that an affectation or what I mean? The reality that you're walking around with this amount of water, like 32 ounces, whatever it is insane, like people in Kenya. If every person had a Stanley cup full of water they would feel rich, they would feel so privileged. If you contextually look at that, it just changes the way you think about it. And so I look at people when I changes the way you think about it. And so I look at people when I see them walking around, like particularly really small people with their standing cups are just like someone's bigger than their torso and I'm like why you have no idea how lucky you really are to be carrying that that's like such a good point.

Amber Ivey:

thank you for that because, yeah, water and resources and just simple things like having a bathroom in your home and things like that Like we have so many things that we should be happy and we're lucky to have for sure. I want to jump a bit into the AI space. You've had the opportunity to see a lot of different uses for AI. You were literally at the Gov AI conference interviewing people and just getting to be on the ground level of a lot of this stuff. What's the coolest thing you've seen AI do and why was it so cool?

Geoff Livingston:

Well, the coolest use case I've heard was actually military, okay, and it was to do search and rescue, where I believe it was the Navy. They were taking all their downed planes and the flight patterns from it and so when they had a plane disappear, they would look at the flight pattern right before the disappearance to find where the plane went down, based off prior data and predicting where the plane would have landed based off the way it was flying right beforehand.

Amber Ivey:

Oh wow. That's super useful, especially when we've had plane crashes and things like that. We still never found the plane. I didn't even think about AI as a use case for stuff like that.

Geoff Livingston:

Right, and if there's survivors, live savers the whole nine yards. I mean it's kind of cool. I thought that was a really brilliant use case.

Amber Ivey:

Oh yeah, that makes sense. Like you said, to find people quicker, get them the resources they need, rescue and all that is super important. Yeah, you've done some other cool things, particularly in the space of social media, marketing, books, right? Why is it important for kids to learn about digital literacy today and talk a little bit about what you've done in the space of writing about social media and marketing?

Geoff Livingston:

I mean, I think we're living through this right now. I want to be careful about my words because I really feel like unity is really important. We need to focus on that as a country right now. But people are dealing with different facts on every side of the aisle and there's so much digital disinformation and AI accelerates that, and I think that's fair to say. Oh yeah, ai with bad actors is an easy way to create narratives. We've seen the fake Obama videos. We've seen fake Trump photos. I mean the fake Obama videos. We've seen fake Trump photos. I mean, choose your side.

Geoff Livingston:

It's happening and as a result of that, I feel like, personally, the best gift I could give people when I hear them make wild claims is really not to dismiss it. Really, did you verify that? Where'd you see that? Right, and as soon as I hear X, youtube, reddit threads, instagram, I'm very, very skeptical, and for good. Snapchat's another one Very good reasons, right, because information is fluid. People take what they see as truth without even looking at it. You're talking about media forms where it's like swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. I'm looking at something for fractions of a second in some cases, and to accept whatever we're seeing as factual is a mistake, and so I like triangulating sources. I tell people, if you see it, three different places, including reputable mastheads, and what a masthead is like is a newspaper or news outlet that most people generally trust, and you know it's helpful, particularly with political issues, to verify on both sides of the aisle if it's happened Right. Yeah, you know, like especially with gaffes.

Amber Ivey:

Oh, yeah, then you know you got a real thing. I like that. I like the idea of finding three places plus a major newspaper. When you're thinking about just digital literacy for kids, right, and they're trying to figure out how to navigate that with, like we didnakes or to spot the media that's inappropriate. And are there any other things they can do other than like the Verify with three sources? How else can they be advocates for using these media in the right way but also making sure they know that what they're seeing is real or that they're able to analyze that?

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, so let's just take it down to doing your homework right. Yep, one of the most common forms of maybe not 100% correct information is an LLM, a large language model, such as Google, gemini or ChatGPT my personal favorite is Claude, but there are two primary reasons why academics really don't want kids using these. By the way, I don't feel that way. I feel like kids should use them because it's going to prevent them from being successful later on their life to not use them. One is they don't want to have the ai do your homework. I think we all get that but two is that there's a hallucination factor and it depends on how you ask the engine sometimes. But also, just like we were talking about x and instagram and reddit, these things were trained on that stuff, so they're like not telling truth because they're trained on untruths and, as a result of that, you really have to verify that.

Geoff Livingston:

That being said, you can use these ais to help you test what came back, like you could take one answer and put it in a different one and say is this true? Can you give me some sources of information? You can use perplexity Now, chat, gpt with a search capability or Gemini to pull up the links, and then I encourage people to really actually click through, because even though they give you the links, half the time the answer is still off, right, you know? So that's your job, like if I was a teacher today. I know half the kids that may be listening to this are probably rolling their eyes like oh please, no, never, never, don't get this guy for a teacher. But instead of saying don't use chat gpt, I would say use chat gpt to write your answer for this, to draft it, then correct it and then tell me why it was right or wrong.

Amber Ivey:

I like that. I think that's a good way to approach it, One you see its limitations, then you learn, also the process you get to go through the process of learning. I know teachers their biggest fear is kids are not going to learn anymore. But these devices, especially LLMs in particular, are the best place to learn capacity around AI, the limitations, to push it, to pull it back. I love that and I love that as a concept.

Geoff Livingston:

Critical thinking. Right, I mean? The best asset we have as humans is our ability to think strategically and critically. Which a bot's just going to think based off an algorithm on probability?

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, very, very true. And humans, especially little humans, okay, kids, I think they're well positioned to like do the why, the why Like. I actually encourage kids to do the why test because they do the why test with adults anytime someone says something, do that with the AI. Why, why is that true? Are you telling the truth? Why is that Like push telling the truth? Why is that like? Push it to its limits? And even asking the questions they ask in real life work very well for those tools 100 right oh yeah, why, why, why, why, why?

Amber Ivey:

until it stops answering you is what I say. So do you want to play a quick game with me? Um, before we, uh, keep going through the conversation sure, let's do it okay, so this is called tech trivia. We're going to ask you some fun questions. I think they're fun because I'm asking the questions about technology and you have to answer as quickly as you can.

Geoff Livingston:

I'm melting, I'm melting.

Amber Ivey:

For those who are listening to this, watch the video is all I'm going to say. So question one what is ai literacy?

Geoff Livingston:

uh ai. Literacy is the ability to functionally use and understand artificial intelligence in a competent manner to achieve a result there we go, and we all need to be illiterate.

Amber Ivey:

I'm not quite sure I'm there, you don't think we all need to be literate. Share more, share more.

Geoff Livingston:

Oh my God, it moves so quickly. It's like I constantly find myself learning new tools in AI, like I have a lot of friends in the business world that have data challenges. Let's leave it at that. So now I'm learning how to use data labeling AI, but I'm definitely not literate with them.

Amber Ivey:

Okay, okay, no, that's fair. That's fair, or do you agree that we all need to have some understanding of it as a basic?

Geoff Livingston:

Oh yeah it shouldn't be like if somebody says you have to use an AI, that you should be terrified. You should be like, okay, I've done this before, this is just a new tool.

Amber Ivey:

Removing the fear level of it should be our goal, but I think we're not there yet. So how many gigabytes are in a terabyte?

Geoff Livingston:

I believe it's a thousand.

Amber Ivey:

Yes, a little over a thousand, it's a thousand and twenty-four, so I'll give you that as right Good job, even the fact that, like iPhone and stuff like that, like the fact that they've gone up, like I remember when, sorry kids, you're going to have to deal with old people for a second. I remember, like when we got my first Nokia phone, then when I got my like at each time and then thinking about pictures, how literally things were like megabytes and then it was like megabytes, and you were so excited, and then they say terabytes.

Amber Ivey:

I'm like when does this stop? So the good thing is, though, this helps AI being able to have all this processing power. Like we need to be able to have this much data to do this. So it's for use, but I'm still blown that within my lifetime, this much data is available to human beings.

Geoff Livingston:

Do you remember? Bought modems.

Amber Ivey:

I don't.

Geoff Livingston:

So when I first got on the internet, when I was like a teenager, we had to like dial up.

Amber Ivey:

I have dialed up.

Geoff Livingston:

So we had like 14.4 kilobit connections. I mean like that's how bad it was, like oh my God.

Amber Ivey:

I didn't know it was that small. I knew it was rough.

Geoff Livingston:

It was bad, Like it was like watching a text slowly appear on your phone.

Amber Ivey:

I used to love, like back in the day, aol. I don't even know if AOL is still around.

Geoff Livingston:

Oh, my God.

Amber Ivey:

But like the noise, like I was so excited to hear it.

Geoff Livingston:

Oh, that sound. Yeah, that's the motive, yep.

Amber Ivey:

And just being able to like be on the internet. So again, the fact that we started with that at that little level to now, literally you and I are able to have a full conversation live, like with real time, like it still just blows my mind.

Geoff Livingston:

All right, let me finish tech trivia, because I I'm gonna keep going off script. Last question what is a gigabyte? If you can explain it to a kid, gigabyte, I would say a gigabyte is an empty vessel in the sense of it's a lot of space that can be filled with things. So if you think about like a big, huge digital ranch in the middle of Montana that's just waiting for you to load up a ton of data on it, that's what a gigabyte is.

Amber Ivey:

That is the best answer I've ever heard for gigabyte. Thank you for that. You'll get a chance to turn it on me in a few minutes, don't you worry. What are some of the common mistakes people make when using the internet and how can kids avoid those mistakes?

Geoff Livingston:

I think, one that we see a lot in our own home and my kid sees it, I see it, my better half sees. It is time. You know, it's like really easy to fall into the internet Like and like, let's say, you're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling and then you're three hours down the hole and you wonder what you did with your afternoon. And what we like to do is put time limits on it, not to like punish or anything like that, but just because, hey, you know what it's important to get outside. You know I'm a runner. I don't really want to make my run uncomfortable because I've been doing too many things if that makes sense on on the internet. And I also think too that the other trick is that it gets back to that kind of fake information.

Geoff Livingston:

There is more subtle traps with social media in particular, where it can make you feel like you're missing out or you're less than, or you're comparing yourself to other people, or you're judging other people, which I don't think a lot of people really realize is happening a lot. But I see a lot of other people judging each other and you know I feel like once I'm getting into a space like that, it's not healthy, and you know we talk about that a lot in our house as well. It's just really like a good way to do. I really need that extra pair of running shoes Cause that influencer has 40 pairs of running shoes on the wall. I wonder how my kid feels about that. When they're asking me for something you know, you know, does your dad really need that pair of shoes? Probably.

Amber Ivey:

And the sites know how to get you the ad for exactly what you're looking for or put the right thing in front of you. So, as a habitual buyer on Instagram, I understand what you're saying.

Geoff Livingston:

What was the last thing you bought on Instagram?

Amber Ivey:

Honestly, it was like a face cream because they did. The ad was amazing. I'm just gonna be very honest, I don't even buy like facial stuff on Instagram, but basically the ad was literally showing five different products and then dropping the cream or the serum on cotton balls and seeing it absorb it compared to the other ones and which ones were the best, and I was like that was just a very easy ad of like showing me what could be absorption into my skin and seeing the competitor product not even absorb into the cotton ball, I was like I'm buying it.

Geoff Livingston:

And was it good.

Amber Ivey:

I think it's amazing. I went to my um person that works on my face. She was like your face looks so moisturized. What are you doing? So I was like you know what, found this one that's awesome. That's awesome what about you?

Geoff Livingston:

running shorts.

Amber Ivey:

Just because I preach about it doesn't mean I'm not susceptible to it right, it's so's so easy and that's an important part, right, even with kids. The next question I want to like dig into is, like, as a kid being on these sites right now, they have access to their data and information, and the reason why I bought that face cream is because they knew that's something I could potentially buy, right, right, so how should kids and parents think about protecting kids' personal information and even some of these ads like being targeted to them in the marketing space?

Geoff Livingston:

You know, we're of the mindset of leaning in and letting them play with it. We're about to give them. My kid just turned 14. So they're getting their Apple card now, and with a limited amount of money on there, you know, and my kid's kids are basis, so they're susceptible to buying cool outfits to play in a lot of band shirts and that kind of thing, and if that's what you want to blow your money on, that's fine, but then when you want real things, you're not going to have that money, and so learning that financial responsibility is really part of it. I mean. There are people, though, that take the attitude that you shouldn't even be on there. I mean, look at what australia is passing, that law where you have to be 16 to be on a social network. Yeah, I mean.

Geoff Livingston:

I don't know how they're going to enforce that, but it's gonna be hard exactly. So you know, I I figured, like you know, it's better to lean in, but also I do think it's helpful, if you have a good relationship with an adult in your life that you trust, it's good to be able to bounce off like, hey, this person said this and that. What do you think about that? What's the right thing to do? And we see that particularly with online bullying, that can be very dangerous.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, and the other piece that I've been talking to folks about, particularly in like these different conversations, is that for kids I wouldn't share anything I wouldn't. My parents told me not to share in real life. Don't share it online, like you would never tell a stranger where you live, so you don't put that online. You should keep some of the same rules that just exist in the current life and also apply those online, for sure.

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, 100 percent right online for sure?

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, 100% right. How can kids and their friends, family members, et cetera, become more digitally literate, especially as, like you said earlier, these things are changing so often? Literacy is like what is it depending on the day, like how literate you are and where you're on the scale. But how can they be more digitally literate in the space with AI?

Geoff Livingston:

Part of it's safety. I know that's crazy, but you have to think about it from a cybersecurity standpoint as well. Like, I think, digital literacy is also understanding that there are people that are really trying to scam you as well, and you know this is affects everybody. But look at links, in particular. When people send you links or they're pushing links, you know, is this link a real link? Does this go to a brand that seems like it's smart, right? Like? What I mean by that is, is this an applecom link or is it like a appleco link? If it'sco, it's a phishing scam. That's one you know. The other thing is to help other people, right, you know. And again it gets back to that kind of pure network where you have your buddies supporting each other. But have you guys seen this story? Is it real? Is it not real? What have you heard? Trust the general wisdom of the crowd, all things considered. I know we're all like just kind of reeling a little bit right now with the politics side of it, but the general wisdom of the crowd tends to be right when you are looking out for each other, and so there's a lot of safety in that.

Geoff Livingston:

And then the other thing with protecting your personal information online is be very, very mindful about sharing personal data, about sharing personal data. Nobody that you have not met should be asking you for your address, social security number, pictures, what you look like, things like that. And I really think, with teenagers in particular, don't send each other funky pictures. I mean I know it's kind of goofy, but don't do it on Instagram, don't do it on these social networks. People can use these things against you later on. Just be mindful. You know you got to just be careful and also think about, like all your peers, all the kids and I mean I know what middle school is like.

Geoff Livingston:

I got one. It could be rough, right. What happens if that picture ends up in the wrong hands? Do you really want to have your buddy Joe take that picture and send it to his buddies? And then what happens if one of those buddies takes it and shares it with the whole school? And you can't get mad at other people for sharing stuff that you shared with them. That's that old, was it that old adage about secrets Like, once you tell somebody it isn't a secret anymore? Yeah, it's the same with digital information. So that kind of goofy 0.5 picture you're doing to yourself do you really want it out there? I mean, that's. That's a light example, but you know what I mean.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, but seriously. Yeah, that's a light example, but you know what I mean. Yeah, but seriously. Yeah, that's a good point. Back to what I was just saying around things you wouldn't do in real life, again, don't do it here. The secret thing really resonates to me Anytime I send a text message, a picture, I'm assuming that at some point someone could get upset with me or decide they don't like me that day and that could be anywhere and shared Right. And screenshot is so easy Like even now phones you say screenshot, it'll screenshot for you. You don't even got to touch it Right. So, making sure that whatever it is that you're sharing, that you're okay with it being public. I think that's very good advice for kids who are dealing in this space right now, and I've heard too many instances of kids having really bad endings or things happen to them because they share things that they thought they were sharing in private and it got into the hands of the wrong person or he felt bullied into sharing. So this is very important and definitely timely.

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, the other thing maybe one more is if you wouldn't say it to somebody's face, don't say it to them online. It's so much easier and, believe me, I'm like. I used to be a flamethrower on the email, but you know, I know that's old technology, but man it's. If you're angry or you're judging somebody and you're going to put something negative out there and you wouldn't say it to their face, don't put it out there, man, it always comes. You think you're smart for a second, then, like an hour later, you feel like it always boomerangs in some way. It's never good.

Amber Ivey:

Oh, yeah, there's been too many times in my life where I've made sure I didn't burn bridges, because the amount of times I've come back around to a person or someone that knows the person and then I have to say, do you know this person? I need to be on the good side of that conversation at all times, as much as possible. So to your point. I love the point of like if you wouldn't say it. I think that also raises the threshold, because sometimes you feel more bold to say something to a stranger vis-a-vis TikTok, et cetera, and you'll say things like the comments are nasty sometimes and I know if I talked to that person in real life they would never let that come out of their mouth.

Geoff Livingston:

No right. Ever, it's just never good. It's just never good. No, and we're spreading bad seeds. It's not good.

Amber Ivey:

Oh yeah. So let's make sure we don't do that on all sides, kids to adults. If you can't say it to a person's face, keep it to yourself. Don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. It's what they told us growing up. All right, it's your turn to put me in the hot seat. We're going to do something fun to learn more about you. It we're going to do something fun to learn more about you. It's called two truths and a dream. You're going to tell me true, true facts about your life or job or what have you, and then one dream that you had either as a kid or even as an adult. That's totally fine. And then I will, along with the audience at home. We're going to try to guess, based on our critical thinking, which two things are true and which one's a dream, and whenever you're ready, feel free to shout them out.

Geoff Livingston:

One I'm a marathon runner. Two I served as a cto. Three when I was a kid, I fixed game machines okay.

Amber Ivey:

One, you're a marathon runner. Two, you were served as a cto and in three you fixed game machines. Okay, so I know you're a marathon runner and kids earlier he told us he was a runner and talked about he runs. I also know he had a personal best time recently. So I can say that one is true. The next two I do not know, but I'm going to play around and think about it. So, cto, I think you could be because of your background and the work that you've done. And then when it relates to game machines, I do know you said your father put a game machine in your house early on, so you gave us that detail. Kids, make sure you're thinking at home potentially which one is right and which one is not. I'm going to say game machine is the other true thing only because you mentioned game machine here today and I don't have any evidence of the CTO or chief technology officer is what that stands for. So I'm going to say CTO is the dream. I'm probably wrong. What is it?

Geoff Livingston:

you are correct? Yes, okay, my first job was working in an arcade, literally fixing those big Ms. Pac-man machines.

Amber Ivey:

That's not the angle I was going for, but hey, it worked out. That is so cool.

Geoff Livingston:

I do advise CTOs and organizations that don't have a CTO, but I am not a CTO. I've never been in that formal capacity.

Amber Ivey:

Got it Because I knew you work with people, so I'm like he could have, but then okay, great, so I'm glad I got that one. Right Before we wrap up, I want to make sure you get an opportunity to share any advice you have for kids who want to learn more about AI or just information, online marketing. What do you want to leave behind with them?

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, you know, I think one of the best places for kids to go if they want to learn more about AI is actually either Medium or Substack, which both have very strong AI communities, where you have really smart people writing lots of articles about how to use AI and how to think about it. It's really, if you want to get into it from a geeky how does this stuff work? Level and get into the nuts and bolts. But if you're there, that's the place to do it. But if you're not, then I would suggest reading some just general technology trade pubs. For example, one might be TechCrunch or VentureBeat or eWeek, which will give you more stories than you're seeing in the general press.

Amber Ivey:

That's a good point. I'll drop those in the show notes. Yeah, I have a whole bunch of different newsletters that I sign up for that you never see in the press, but it's like a curated list that someone pulls a lot of those resources into and that's super important.

Geoff Livingston:

Do you read Gary Marcus?

Amber Ivey:

I do not. I'm about to. He's so dramatic.

Geoff Livingston:

He hates OpenAI so much so, kids you may not know this. Openai is the company that owns ChatGPT and this guy's so fun. He hates open ai so much so, kids you may not know it's open. Ai is the company that owns chat gpt, and this guy basically loves every other company but that it's really it's so comical, I mean like it's just so funny. I'm sorry, it's like we're reading a comic anyway I'll check it out.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, I'll check it out. I tend to like chat gpt, so I mean it changed everything.

Geoff Livingston:

It changed everything like it changed everything Like you got to give them credit right.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, let's give them credit. It made us all be here today, for sure. Is there anything else you want to make sure to share with the listeners, or any questions that you want to make sure that you answer before you head out?

Geoff Livingston:

Yeah, the only thing I would say is have an attitude of fun and experimentation with this set of tools and the ones that will come after this, which we really have no idea what they will be. If you continue to have an attitude of play with technology, then you'll be a lifelong learner, and that's the way to be with this stuff. Then you're never really caught off guard.

Amber Ivey:

We all need to keep learning. We definitely have to keep learning with these new technologies that we don't know, like you said, where they're going to be. Geoff, thank you so much for joining us today, and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe to AI for Kids and stay curious.

Geoff Livingston:

Thanks, Amber.

Amber Ivey:

Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.

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