[Parenting in an AI Age Podcast #3] Professor John Goldsmith on How to Think With AI

[Parenting in an AI Age Podcast #3] How to Think With AI: University of Chicago Professor John Goldsmith How do you raise curious, independent thinkers in the age of AI? Dr. John Goldsmith, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago (linguistics and computer science), shares how he uses Claude and ChatGPT as thinking partners, why books still matter for young people, and why no LLM should be treated as an authority. In this conversation you'll learn: Why learning HOW to think matters more than piling on content, activities and credentials How to use AI as a "graduate student" thinking partner, and why you should always push back Why physical books and home literacy are still essential for children Why LLMs can show bias on world events, and how AI literacy can teach kids to spot it ⏱ CHAPTERS 1:36 An interdisciplinary career: math, economics, linguistics 3:25 Advice for teens: broad education vs. specialising 4:43 Parents, overloaded CVs and learning how to think 6:11 Do LLMs "think"? Working with Claude and ChatGPT 11:16 Raising thinkers in the AI era: why books still matter 14:01 Literacy starts at home 15:51 Physical books vs. digital books 19:12 Three tips for using LLMs well 20:19 Political and cultural bias in LLMs 22:04 AI literacy: comparing LLMs from different countries 🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS Learning how to think is more important than accumulating content knowledge. AI chatbots are useful thinking partners, not authorities. Verify what they tell you. Pushing back on an LLM often produces deeper, more accurate answers. LLMs can reflect cultural and political bias, so independent knowledge is needed to catch it. Books remain essential for developing young thinkers, and literacy starts at home. 👤 ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. John Goldsmith is the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, with appointments in linguistics and computer science. A graduate of MIT and Swarthmore College, he is known for developing autosegmental phonology, his research on African tone systems, and pioneering work in computational morphology and unsupervised learning. He is the author of "The Battle in the Mind Fields" and "The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career." Subscribe for more conversations on AI, education and raising curious kids:    / @kigumigroup   Connect with us: www.kigumigroup.com