One of my favorite questions to ask people over the past 6 months is: how much is AI changing your world?
I especially like asking it of people still in school. What do exams look like now? Are you using it? Your classmates? I was thinking the other night, while reading Sutskever’s List, how much more I would have learned in school if I had AI study mode. Of course, my immediate next thought was of how less I would have learned because of how easy the answers would have come. We like to think if we went back in time we’d have the wisdom and conscientiousness that comes with age, but that’s not always true.
In Paris, I volunteer with an American BSA (formerly Boy Scouts) Scout Troop. The Troop is made up of a few dozen boys and girls aged 13 and 18. In other words, right in the middle of this change.
To that end, we decided that we needed to equip them with guidelines for how to use AI properly when completing their rank and merit badge requirements. They had to be something that allowed Scouts to use their judgment, while also making sure that everyone from 13 to 18 (and the adults who support them), could clearly understand when, when not, how, and why.
Here is the policy we came up with, and then I’ll share some commentary:
What we mean when we say AI
AI isn’t new per se, and lots of things can be classified under AI. Speech transcription, spell check, or spam filters are a type of AI, for example.
But most often, these days people mean LLMs or Generative AI. This is what you see with ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and others. They can easily create text, images, and other media. Through doing so, they can answer questions on pretty much every topic.
Troop 112 AI Policy
- Be thrifty
- Be trustworthy
- Cite your AI
- Check your work
Be Thrifty
AI can be helpful for performing certain tasks faster than you can do them yourself. For example, you take a photo of the sign in sheet and you ask AI to extract the names into plain text instead of typing them out yourself.
This is being thrifty with your time, and is an appropriate use of AI.
Some other examples where AI can be helpful:
- Helping you brainstorm ideas for campout activities
- Researching organizations that may be in need of Scout volunteers
- Having an AI do simple or grammar check on your own writing (but not rewriting it for you)
Be Trustworthy
Above all, you should be honest about your use of AI. Never try to pass AI work off as your own. If you would feel uncomfortable telling a Scoutmaster that your parents did a task for you, having AI do it is not acceptable either.
Additionally, any work where the process is the point, more than the output, is not an acceptable use of AI. Some examples are essays where you are to reflect on your experience, where the process of research is important, or seeking out experts in a given field. If you are unsure if you can use AI, check with your Merit Badge counselor or Scoutmaster.
Cite Your AI
Anytime you use AI, you must outline where and how you used AI.
For example, if you used AI to do some research, critique your initial ideas, and to check your grammar, you must include text like this:
For this merit badge requirement, I used AI to research locations of data centers in Europe, critique my argument for more data centers, and to check the grammar and spelling of my finished essay.
Check Your Work
Do not trust AI blindly. AI does not know when it is giving you false information, and so any facts, figures, or information that it provides you must be doublechecked against a known source. You are ultimately responsible for anything that has your name on it.
Scouting America already does provide some guidance (mostly that it must be disclosed and that the work must the Scout’s own), so we were first of all largely building on that.
And when looking at what other scout groups have done, there was a clear split. The Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania allowed some usage, while the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan forbid it entirely. This last approach doesn’t seem tenable. First of all, while it does mention gen AI, it also says AI generally. What does that entail? Also, in speaking with other Scout parents, there is the question of the point of the Scout Law that says “a Scout is… thrifty.” Thrifty doesn’t just mean with money: LLMs can be a fantastic research tool and they can be used to eliminate drudgery. A blanket ban, to me at least, feels like someone having a misguided view of what AI really is.
Some schools also use a red, yellow, green light system to AI usage. That seemed a little too detailed for our needs, but we did adopt the “parent swap test” from Jeffco Public Schools to provide the Scouts with a clear guide on when AI is acceptable.
We also relied on the point of the Scout Law that says “a Scout is… Trustworthy.” No Scout should be passing AI-derived work as his or her own, and the Scout should always be clear where AI was used. Most often, AI isn’t the problem: pretending you did the work is.
Finally, while the policy doesn’t call it out explicitly, the Scout Oath says “On my honor, I will do my best… to keep myself… mentally awake.” Sometimes the work is there so you can do the work, not so you can finish the work. You have to check the AI. Don’t let the AI do all the thinking for you.
How will this all work out? We’ll see, and we’ll adjust. And I’m sure that Scouting America will come up with new guidelines. There’s an AI Merit Badge, so they aren’t shying away from it. We’re less than six years from GPT-3’s release, there’s still a lot to learn.