March 23, 2025 • 49 mins
Episode 317: Why Ethics Must Lead Our AI Conversations with Amber Ivey
In this powerful episode of My EdTech Life, I sit down with Amber Ivey—data expert and host of the AI for Kids podcast—to unpack one of the most urgent topics in the world of AI: ethics.
Amber shares how her journey in government data and policy led her to become a passionate advocate for AI literacy among kids. From her edutainment platform AiDigiTales to her bestselling children's book AI Meets AI, Amber is on a mission to simplify AI and empower the next generation to become creators, not just consumers.
We get real about bias in AI, how large language models fall short for diverse populations, and why representation—and ethical design—matters now more than ever. Amber doesn’t just talk tech—she breaks it down in a way that’s simple, accessible, and human-centered.
🎧 Whether you're a parent, teacher, tech leader, or cautious advocate like me, this episode will challenge and inspire you to think more critically about the tools we’re putting in front of our kids—and who’s building them.
👇 Timestamps
00:00 – Intro and shoutout to our sponsor, Book Creator
01:45 – Welcoming Amber Ivey to the show
03:00 – Amber’s journey: From government data to AI for kids
06:24 – Helping kids become AI-literate in a tech-first world
09:00 – How data work shaped Amber’s approach to simplifying AI
12:00 – Using the KISS philosophy: Keep it simple and human
15:35 – The fear-based messaging around AI adoption
17:00 – Why kids need to understand AI through their passions
20:00 – How AiDigiTales was born and the power of edutainment
23:30 – Access, equity, and designing AI literacy for all zip codes
25:50 – Breaking down LLMs and algorithms for kids
28:00 – Building podcast episodes for kids and teachers
31:30 – Keeping learners engaged with sound and storytelling
33:00 – Addressing the ethics of AI—early and often
35:00 – Real talk about bias, language, and who AI is leaving out
38:20 – Empowering kids to be at the table
41:00 – Amber’s AI kryptonite and why it’s okay to not know every tool
42:20 – The billboard message she’d share with the world
43:14 – Who Amber would trade places with for a day (you’ll love it)
45:00 – Final reflections and gratitude
💡 Key Topics Covered
- AI literacy for kids
- Ethics in AI development
- Data-driven storytelling
- Simplifying complex tech
- EdTech equity
- The importance of diver
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fonz Mendoza (00:30):
Hello everybody and welcome to another great
episode of my EdTech life.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this wonderful day,
wherever in the world thatyou're joining us from.
Thank you, as always, for allof your support.
We appreciate all the likes,the shares, the follows.
Thank you so much forinteracting with our content.
And a big shout out to ourwonderful sponsor, book Creator.
(00:53):
You know I got to have mycaffeine and I want to thank
Book Creator for this wonderfulmug and the work that they're
doing.
So don't forget that it is bean author month, so make sure
that you go sign up for bookcreator, use code my ed tech
life and you get three months ofpremium service.
So please make sure that youcheck that out.
And, of course, all of thatwill be in the show notes.
(01:14):
But, guys, it's been a whileI've been out.
I went to Puerto Rico and itwas amazing doing a conference
there with tech, my school.
But it is always always awesometo be back behind the mic,
loving and you know doing whatwell, loving what I'm doing as
far as podcasting, but, morethan anything, connecting with
some amazing and wonderfuleducators, professionals you
(01:38):
know, people that are out therein the space that are advocating
for AI, and especially AI forkids, in the space that are
advocating for AI, andespecially AI for kids.
So I would love to welcome tothe show today Amber Ivey.
Amber, how are you doing today?
Amber Ivey (01:50):
I'm doing great.
How are you?
Fonz Mendoza (01:52):
I am doing wonderful, amber, like we were
talking a little bit in thepre-show.
Again, I just recently foundyour podcast, too, as well, and
I just enjoy the format, like Iwas telling you the the
questioning the guests that youhave had, and I just love the
ABCs to have AI that you've beendoing, and so I find it to be a
(02:13):
wonderful resource for parents,educators, really anybody in
our space that is interested inAI, because you do such a great
job at just really going in deepbut doing it in a fun way that
is engaging, and I definitely amengaged on my drive home from
work or even on my drive to work.
So thank you so much for thework that you're doing there as
(02:34):
well.
Amber Ivey (02:36):
So glad it resonates .
I know the title is AI for Kids, but the secret is it is for AI
for everyone.
We break it down in a simpleway and we really want to make
sure parents and teachers havethe resources they need to help
kids understand AI in thisoutpacing AI world.
Fonz Mendoza (02:51):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for beinghere today, but for our audience
members, amber, who are notfamiliar with your work yet, but
after the show today, I hopeand I'm telling everybody and
all my followers make sure thatyou go over to our webpage and
make sure that you go over tothe podcast and subscribe,
because I promise you that youwill definitely find some
wonderful resources that you cansprinkle onto it.
You're already doing great.
(03:12):
So, amber, for all of thoseaudience members who are not
familiar with your work yet, canyou tell us a little bit of
your journey?
You know your context withinnow in the AI space.
How did that come about?
Amber Ivey (03:26):
So my journey did not start in the AI space.
Well, technically it did.
My initials are AI, sotechnically I was born into this
world of AI, right, but no, itactually started in the data
space.
So my background is in data.
I say I do government data orhelp governments with data by
day and I help kids understandAI by night, but my career has
(03:47):
been in the data space for sometime, so I've been helping out
governments, for the most part,learn how to use data to make
decisions and now, because of AIjust being an extension of data
, like that's the thing thatpowers data, over the past,
probably eight years or so sixto eight years or so I've been
doing research in the space.
Um, probably eight years or so,six to eight years or so I've
been doing research in the spaceand then also um getting more
(04:08):
active in it by lending lendingmy voice to an ai avatar.
My voice is actually using anai avatar.
That's um by this organizationcalled create lab.
She travels the world.
She speaks multiple languages,um, including spanish, russian,
uh, japanese.
I just tested these languageout, languages out with some
kids, so I learned that she doesspeak a bunch of stuff.
I didn't know she speaks, butI've been active in this space
(04:28):
mostly because data is anextension of AI and data work is
very important to me, because Ibelieve data helps people make
better decisions, particularlygovernment, when they're helping
people get access to servicesor improve the lives of citizens
, because that is their main job, and because of that I was able
to do research in AI, led someprojects that had AI within them
as well, and then decided toreally look at how I wanted to
(04:51):
think about AI and I wanted tofocus on kids, because adults
were a little bit scared ofthings.
And when ChatGPT came out in2022, at this point I can't
remember which year I wasalready the voice of the avatar
I told you about, so I hadalready interacted with chat,
gpt or GPT through that, becausethe company had access to
(05:15):
OpenAI's research tools at thetime.
We're testing it out.
So when it came out, everyonewas like oh, ban it, do this.
So what is this thing going on?
I was like, wait, I've beenlike playing with this thing and
the voice of this thing forsome time.
Now it's not as scary as itseems.
Yes, we should be cautious, butwe should think about what that
looked like.
And then that's when I decidedto switch over to kids, because
I was podcasting about AI foradults and helping them
(05:37):
understand it.
But as we get older, we get alittle bit nervous.
We're not interested in the newthings that are coming up often
, and me I get it.
I don't like change unless it'sa change I want to have happen.
So what would it mean then tofocus on the group that's
already growing up in the age ofAI Someone said this to me and
I think it's a good point isthat kids that are born today,
(05:57):
their first interaction with theinternet is AI, through Alexa,
google and all these differenttools.
And that was the moment wheremy mind, like, really opened up
and said if their firstinteraction is with AI and their
AI first generation, how thendo we make sure they're prepared
in 10, 15 years, when they'regoing to be in the workforce and
all these tools are going to beintegrated?
So that's a little bit of likehow I got here, starting with AI
(06:19):
excuse me, data and then movedover to AI.
Fonz Mendoza (06:24):
That is wonderful and you know, actually it kind
of seems like just really anatural progression, like you
said.
You know the type of work thatyou were doing and then, of
course, moving into the AI spaceand you know, I agree with you
with what you said.
It's just also that fear ofchange, and especially in adults
, in November 2022, when thiswhole thing came out, it was
just like, from then on, like mypodcast I've been doing and
(06:46):
interviewing, and it's justheavy conversations on AI and
it's just great because rightnow I'm just researching those
conversations and doing likefirst quarter, second quarter,
third quarter, fourth quarterand just kind of seeing how the
themes have changed, how it wentfrom panic, panic like no, we
don't want this to slowly likethat slow acceptance and just
kind of seeing it.
And then, of course, now it'sit's really now that in at least
(07:10):
in the education space, findingthose main players within the
education space now saying, okay, like now, how can we really
ideally integrate thistechnology into the classroom?
Because, as you said, you knowmany, you know times walking
around in the shopping andthings of that sort.
You have students that have adevice, students that you can
(07:30):
actually hear them just controlthe device by saying, hey, alexa
, or, you know, hey, siri, andthings of that sort.
You know this is the world thatthey are growing up in.
But, at the same time, what I dolove that you said is just kind
of, you know, moving yourenergy into the space for
students and for kids to be ableto explain this technology to
(07:51):
them, and I think that'sfantastic how the technology,
how you as a human, can be ableto manipulate, as far as you
know, if there's something thatyou're looking for, you know
specifically the context andthings of that sort to be able
(08:12):
to, you know, even look at thatoutput and make sure that we
educate them to make sure thatthey're looking for outputs that
are accurate to as well.
And so the one thing that I dolove about your podcast is just
those little gems and the waythat, even speaking with amazing
guests that you've had and onethat I'll mention to you like I
always say, I just gave a shoutout pre-recording and now I'll
(08:33):
give a shout out here in therecording is Dr Nika McGee,
because she is fantastic and herand I have had the opportunity
to present, and she has anawesome session on AI for
Littles.
That is like unplug and it isfantastic even for adults to be
able to understand those things.
So I love the work that youkind of both are doing and kind
of in the same space andadjacent to one another, and you
(08:56):
through the podcast, and I knowwe'll talk a little bit about
AI, digitales 2 as well.
But I want to ask you you knowjust deep dive into you
mentioned, you know, workingwith data to drive efficiency
and decision-making and all ofthose things Like so how has
that influenced and I know youtalked a little bit more about
that, but really targeting withkids how have those experiences
(09:19):
influenced your approach tointegrating AI in education?
Amber Ivey (09:23):
Oh yeah, so my first job out of my master's program.
So originally I was in privatesector doing logistics, which is
like heavy data, heavilyefficient, heavily focused on
efficiencies.
And I went to school to get mymaster's with the goal of
helping government be moreefficient and work better.
Didn't know how, didn't knowthe way I was going to do it,
but I took a performancemanagement class and one of the
(09:43):
professors told me about thisprogram called StateSat at the
time, which was a data programin the state of Maryland that
was helping the governor at thetime, former Governor O'Malley
use data to drive outcomes andget towards his goals.
He had goals around decreasinginfant mortality, maternal
mortality, decreasing the COemissions that were going into
(10:09):
the climate, helping to reduceviolence that was happening in
the state.
He had a lot of different goalshe was focused on and those
goals all had data attached tothem, so we were able to go in
and help analyze those data tohelp the leaders of the state
understand what was happening.
What I learned there is a lot ofleaders in the state or
anywhere I work with government.
(10:30):
People come into governmentbecause they want to do a good
job and make the world a betterplace.
They may not have a dataanalyst background or be able to
look at numbers in a differentway, so it was our job to make
sure we put in front of themwhat the numbers said in an easy
way so they can make a decision.
Why I bring that up is often, Ithink, across any career field
(10:50):
we're in, we get very technicalor we make it so hard to
understand and we try to makethings complicated when the
reality is it's best to keepthings simple.
Very, very early on in mygovernment career, how to take
complex concepts, data, imagesor whatever it was that was
happening, and explain it tosomeone, no matter their
background, in a way that theygot immediately and could make a
(11:12):
decision off of that.
How did that translate to AIfor?
Fonz Mendoza (11:15):
kids Go ahead.
Oh no, no, no.
I am so sorry to interruptthere.
Continue, continue.
Amber Ivey (11:20):
And then, as it relates to AI for kids because
I've had the background in doingthat and not to mention, my dad
also was in the Army they havea slogan called keep it simple,
with a bad word at the end.
But keep it simple is the partI keep, because when you're like
deploying missions or doingwork, you have to keep it simple
so that you don't get someoneinjured or you're able to do
what you need to do.
So that's my model for life ingeneral.
(11:40):
Like how can I explain thingsin a way that's super simple for
someone to understand so thenthey can take action, because
I'm not here for like justsharing, and then we're like
doing nothing with it.
Like how can you actually helpsomeone do something with their
the information they receive?
So with AI for Kids, it was aneasier transition.
I was doing the same thing forAI for Adults and breaking down
tough topics.
But it was also an easytransition for me to say to kids
(12:03):
, parents and teachers this isthis weird thing called neural
networks or this is this thingcalled large language models.
Let's break it down in the mostsimplest way so anyone can
understand, and then we takeaway the intimidation, we take
away the fear around it and weallow someone to make a decision
, because they actually have thesame information that you and I
have, who may be in the spaceand living and breathing it
(12:25):
every day.
Fonz Mendoza (12:27):
I love it.
You know, a lot of the thingsthat you said just really
resonate with me and, believe itor not, like the way that
you're speaking, it's likeyou're speaking my language and
it really fills my heart becauseit's very interesting that even
I myself came from privatesector and then I came into
education and it's very weirdbecause I I kind of see things
in a different way, in adifferent lens.
But I'm also the very same waythat the way that you explained
(12:49):
it, that I love to getinformation and dissect that
information and present it to myaudience, whether it's teachers
, whether it's professionals andso on, in a specific way that
works with them.
And I also follow the KISSphilosophy, except that my K, my
kiss philosophy, I say it'skeep it simple and streamlined
(13:09):
and so and so I've done a lot ofpresentations like that.
But I love that hook where it'slike, ah, guys, come on, we
just got to do the kissphilosophy, and everybody's like
, oh my gosh.
And I said, no, keep it simpleand streamlined, which is really
what you're doing in that senseof taking all of this I mean
with so much that has come outsince 2022, and for you to be
able to really share thatinformation in a wonderful way,
(13:33):
like I mentioned.
You know listening to yourpodcast and you know the way
that you make it so easy tounderstand and you're talking to
some very high level guests tooas well that have wonderful
experiences and wonderfulbackgrounds in coding, in large
language models, in presenting.
But the way that you questionand draw out those answers, you
(13:56):
do it in such a way where I'mlike, oh, okay, so that's what
that means and oh, I can seethat connection and so on.
So I absolutely love that andyour heart for that is in the
right place, because wedefinitely need to make sure
that we simplify all of thisinformation to really take away
a lot of those barriers to entry, like you mentioned, obviously
number one being the fear andyou know I like myself and I
(14:19):
know I really that's.
This is why I really, you know,with Dr Nika McGee, her and I
really get along is like we justconsider ourselves cautious
advocates where we're kind ofright in the middle, like I'm
not too far to you know, likeyes, let's go all in, and I'm
not too far into like no, no, no, like kind of just there in the
middle and just trying to bringand reconcile both worlds.
(14:39):
And that's why I love havingthese conversations with amazing
guests like you, to be able tosee both sides and just have
people kind of take, you know,the good that is on this side,
the good that is on this side,and just kind of make it their
own and see where they are intheir adoption phase.
Because I always say there's,you know, those speedboats,
those tugboats and then thoseanchors.
(15:00):
So where is it that we fall inand how can we just continue to
move forward at at any pace?
You know, I don't know if youfind this in your space, but
sometimes there's the, thosepeople that really put in that
fear and saying if you're notdoing this, you're ruining
education and if you're notdoing this, you're ruining the
kids future, like you should beon this, you know, all the time.
(15:23):
And they just really, you know,rile people up and just causing
them, you know, just with alittle bit of that fear.
What are your thoughts on that?
Like, what has been yourexperience with that?
Amber Ivey (15:35):
I feel like there's every movement that happens.
We have that type of voicecoming through the void of
saying like, of voice comingthrough the void of saying like
you're going to miss this, and Iused to believe it for a very
long time and then I realized ifI miss this, there's another
thing coming the next day, andthen there's another thing
coming the next year, anotherthing coming the next 10 years.
(15:56):
Regardless of what it is Like,there are skill sets that I do
want kids to learn.
I think that's important forall of us to be AI literate.
But do I believe if a kiddoesn't fully understand AI,
will they not make it in society?
I don't believe that, because Ialso know that people who are
investing in AI are alsoinvesting in outdoor sports and
outdoor activities that havenothing to do with a computer,
(16:17):
because they don't know what'sgoing to happen with AI and they
don't know if people are goingto be so tired of being
integrated into computers thatthey're going to go then want to
do more things that are awayfrom a computer.
So we all don't know 100%.
Either way, I tell kids thinkabout how AI STEM, whatever the
topic du jour is of the day howcan that integrate into things
(16:39):
you want to do and enhance thething you want to do, like I was
just speaking to some kids lastFriday for Pi Day and I always
ask do you have a career thatSTEM or AI will not touch?
And of course, I have kidsraising their hand left and
right.
Some folks are like I want to bea cook, I want to be a soccer
player, I want to be an artist.
And then I have the other kidstell them why AI, stem, are
(17:02):
still going to be a part of thatcareer and what you find is
that I don't have to tell them.
The kids around them, even theones who raised their hands and
said their career would not beimpacted, are able to tell the
other young person like hey, no,actually it's used in the shoes
that the soccer player iswearing.
And if you want to be a reallygood soccer player, you're going
to want to think about math andangles and kicks.
(17:23):
Or if you're a great cook, youwant to think about measuring
the perfect recipe or et cetera,or using YouTube or whatever to
share your cooking videos.
So I say that because kids andthe generation that are
currently born are going tofigure it out.
Most of the careers that arehere today we could have told
kids we couldn't have.
There's no way we could havetold kids that YouTube
(17:44):
influencers would be a careerthat kids are talking about, or
being on TikTok or dancing andchoreographed dance and all
these things that are now makingpeople a livable wage right Not
in the million dollar version,but the people who are using it
to make an income on the side,who had never known that was a
job, the Ubers of the world, allthese things.
So I caution against peoplesaying if you don't do this,
(18:05):
because I know that humans areinnovative and creative and when
pressure they're gonna figureit out and figure out a way
(18:40):
no-transcript are going torevolutionize education and test
scores were going to go up, andI still haven't seen a lot of
that yet.
Fonz Mendoza (18:50):
Then Chromebooks came about, and you know that
new technology, everybody needsto be one-on-one, and you know
things of that sort, but stillhaven't seen a lot of those
results yet as far as theeducation.
And so the next thing will comeand, like you mentioned, you
know I know Dr McGee's alwaysshe's already talking about
quantum computing and I knowyou've recently had those
conversations on the show too aswell.
So then, like you mentioned,it's like you think that this is
(19:11):
it.
I mean, just wait till what'scoming out, either later this
year or next year and so on, andso.
But I do love the fact that youaddress the skill set that is
important for a lot of, you know, young men and women to have at
such an early age to reallygrow into that just the critical
thinking skills, thecollaboration, the communication
, the problem solving,troubleshooting, all of those
(19:34):
things that really just are.
I think and I always thoughtthis is what I've already been
doing in my classroom when doingmy lessons and doing my
projects and so on.
So oftentimes I just feel thatit, it they take it to that
whole other level where, no,you're, you're really missing
out.
But thank you so much for thatuh reply.
I really loved it.
Now I want to want to ask youabout AI DigiTales.
(19:57):
So I want to ask you whatinspired you to create AI
DigiTales and how do youenvision that or come up with
that idea of engaging younglearners and educators to
understand and interact with AIin that manner?
Amber Ivey (20:12):
So when I decided to switch to AI for kids, it was
just one little idea.
So I was playing with MittJourney one day and I was doing
a prompt that basically saidhave a little girl in Baltimore
meeting a robot in Baltimorecity that's lost, and played
around with it.
Had a whole bunch of images inone image.
I was just looking at it.
(20:32):
I'm like this could be a book,like let's actually make this
into a book.
So that became the AI meets AIbook.
It became a bestseller onAmazon and then I was like wait,
people actually want to hearabout this.
What else is this thing?
And then that's where AIDigiTales came from and the
reason why it's called AIDigiTales it's like a play on
digital but AI DigiTales.
(20:54):
It's like a play on digital butAI digi tales.
And also understanding that,because it started with a book,
my background and the underlyingpieces of it are storytelling
and like edutainment is what thecompany is focused on.
Because I know for me, sesameStreet, schoolhouse Rock Barney
for my younger siblings that Ihad to listen to because they
were in the room, all thosesongs I still remember to this
(21:14):
day and all those tips about howa bill is developed through
schoolhouse rock or whatever itis.
I remember because there waslike an edutainment factor,
whether it was song,storytelling or helping me think
about that.
So my thing is that AIDigiTales is the first part of a
kid's journey and we'replanting a seed, or even getting
the ground ready for a seed,and my hope is that when a kid
(21:36):
thinks about what they'velearned later like I had, a
four-year-old mom reached outand said their kid was talking
about algorithms One.
Algorithms is not afour-year-old word, but we've
TikTok'd them that in the AI foralgorithms and now they're
using that word.
She may not even know what thatmeans, even after listening to
the podcast, but what she willknow at 10, 15, and 20, means
even after listening to thepodcast.
(21:57):
But what she will know at 10,15, and 20, oh, I learned the
basics of that and thenunderstand how to apply that in
life and that's how life works.
Someone just talked to me aboutthis recently Dipti Bidet at
Little Lit AI.
She was talking about howlearning about AI or learning in
general is a whole frameworkfor the child.
So it's not just in theclassroom, it's not just at home
(22:19):
, it's not just walking throughyour neighborhood.
You're learning across so manydifferent mechanisms.
So my goals for AI DigiTales tobe an AI for kids entertainment
company that gives them a piecethat then adds on to their
greater learning and itencourages teachers I know some
teachers play it in theirclassrooms allows teachers to
use it who may not have accessto AI technology.
(22:39):
And the other piece is that wewant to make sure that kids, no
matter their zip code, getaccess to this.
So most of the stuff we talkabout, even if you listen to,
like the AI for Kids ABC series,a lot of the things you do,
you're not doing with a computer.
You're doing with pieces ofpaper, with your friends nearby,
you're using what you have tounderstand the concept, because
it's not missed for me that alot of kids don't have access to
(23:02):
technology and, coming from adata and government background,
I know communities.
They're still on dial-up andpeople are shocked every time I
say that Dial-up, not broadband,and do not have access to
internet and don't have accessto cell service.
So for kids who are able tohear this stuff at school or
other places, they can then gohome and do an activity where
they may not have a computeraccess to high speed internet.
(23:23):
I want to make sure kids areable to do it, no matter what,
and I'm just a piece of thatpuzzle, a piece of that story.
Fonz Mendoza (23:29):
I love it and, if you don't mind, what I'm going
to do is I'm going to go aheadand just share, so bring this on
, just so for our audiencemembers that are going to be
checking out the video.
So, here it is ai digi tells,and I love this, the layout.
She, amber, has videos.
There's some so many greatthings of course, all the
resources here, the books, butthis is the one thing that I I
(23:52):
love right here, the ai digitodds.
This is the one thing that Ilove right here, the AI Digitods
.
This is wonderful, and so Ithink, amber, you really thought
about this and just the waythat you have here just these AI
Digitods characters and, ofcourse, the representation
that's there, too as well, andso this is something that is
fantastic, that is engaging, andthe one thing that I love is
(24:14):
that, like you mentioned, you'vegot resources here that could
be played either at school, theycould be played at home, and,
of course, the student is goingto be learning the ABCs of AI,
and this is something that isfantastic.
And, of course, guys, this willall be linked in the show notes
.
You can definitely check outthe website, and I do want to
talk about the podcast now.
(24:35):
You can definitely check outthe website and I do want to
talk about the podcast now.
So, as, like I mentioned to youas a listener and a fairly new
listener but I've listened toabout six episodes now and
everything, and you know, andI'm going to continue listening
to them.
But one thing that I loved aboutthat is you know just the way
that you take all of this.
You know, you know, I guess,information about AI and
(24:57):
breaking it down.
Like we talked a little bitabout this, simplifying it for a
child.
Can you, amber, walk me throughthat process of how you take,
you know, large language models.
You know if you take, you know,algorithms and how do you,
what's your process in breakingit down to explain it to a child
?
Amber Ivey (25:21):
So because of my background, I've had to break
topics down my whole entire life.
So it's helped that because ofthe way I've grown up.
And also another thing I dowant to bring up about AI
DigiTalks which matters here isthat all those AI DigiTalks are
representative of kids I've metthroughout my history and my
childhood.
My dad was in the Army, my momwas in the Navy when they met,
and so my dad stayed on in theNavy and my mom got out.
(25:42):
Excuse me, my dad stayed on inthe Army, my mom got out of the
Navy, so we traveled around alot so I was able to meet a
bunch of different kids fromdifferent backgrounds.
So for me, my world was alwaysfull of kids of different
backgrounds and I didn't knowanything but that.
And because of that and movingaround a lot, I had to learn how
to adjust to where I was and tobe able to fit into whatever
(26:05):
cultural context I was in,whatever was happening within my
environment, the differenttypes of people I was
interacting.
I became a master adjuster, soI'll say that that has helped me
out a lot.
So now, when it comes to justAI for kids, I try to make sure
one thing is like the age level.
(26:25):
So originally I wasn't surewhat age level I knew I wanted
to do, like elementary andmiddle school, because a lot of
resources do focus on highschool, particularly around
coding and everyone else, andthere's nothing for like
elementary kids, then middleschool.
So I said I wanted my targetaudience to be four to 12.
I talked to a bunch of kidsabout this to try to figure out
what makes sense for them, and Ialso get to test this stuff out
(26:47):
in person or virtually when I'mdoing AI for kids workshops,
which has been helpful in thatthey're like my case study.
For that and because of AI, Ialso use AI to help clean up my
scripts.
If I'm saying things in a waythat's too complicated.
I'm like make this more simpleor help me say this in a way
that a kid can understand,because I don't want to assume
(27:09):
that I have done it right forthat four-year-old.
For the elementary schoolepisodes and for the middle
schoolers Middle schoolers I'm alittle bit better because I
interact with them a little bitmore and they're a little bit
higher as it relates to wherethey are with understanding
concepts.
But elementary is hard, so Iwill ask AI to help me think
through how do I say this in away that's helpful and it does
(27:32):
help me to create something thatallows me to explain it in a
way and AI also is not perfect,right?
So I start with my script useAI, and then I'm like I don't
like that.
I would explain it like thisand then make the edits to that
and I'm able to help drive AIthrough, using AI to help me
explain it, particularly for myelementary school kids.
Fonz Mendoza (27:51):
Love it.
No-transcript.
(28:23):
How did that inspiration comeabout?
When did you say you know what?
I'm going to go ahead and starta podcast and you know, just
continue the work through thatso I started originally with my
podcast.
Amber Ivey (28:35):
It was called the name was horrible, but I'll say
it it was called AI Decodes theSystem and my whole thing was
like Amber breaking down whichwasn't simple, like as I told
everyone to be simple or kiss amethod.
That was not, but it was mebreaking down different things
about AI data technology in thespace that I live in.
So I was doing that for sometime and then fast forward.
(28:56):
The things happened withChatGPT coming out back in 2022.
And I still kept podcasting.
But then I also realized thatthere was that disconnect that I
was saying I felt like I neededto focus on kids.
So last May I was like I justneed to transition fully to kids
.
And that was after the book itcame out.
I had a few books after thatand I decided that it was time
(29:17):
for me to move on to kidsBecause it's kid-focused.
I was like, all right, I got toput on a different hat and
again talking to young people tosay what matters to you,
listening to other kid-focusedpodcasts and also knowing at the
same time I wanted to befocused on kids, but I knew a
parent or teacher would belistening in the background or
using that to try to get theirkids to listen.
I wanted to make it ageappropriate for young people,
(29:39):
but also not to the point whereadults would be like I don't
want to listen to this, this islike too kiddish or whatever.
So I was trying to play ahelpful balance and I always
tell people before we interviewI'm like there are going to be
sound effects, apologize inadvance if you don't like where
it is, and things like that.
But the goal was, because kidsone already have a short amount
of short attention span, how canwe keep them involved and
(30:02):
remind them to listen again?
When we're doing for elementaryschool kids, five minutes
that's a long time.
So what does that mean?
To make sure?
So that one.
I wanted to have music playingthroughout the whole episode.
So there is music throughoutthe whole episode and then
there's also sound effects.
I understand that middle andhigh schoolers, which are which
is the longer form content, maynot want to hear music the whole
(30:23):
time, but also need that likereminder of hey, listen in or
may have zoned out.
How many of us listen topodcasts and then we zone out
and then we pull back in, tryingto make sure there was sound
effects in it that pulled aperson back in to get them to
listen or refocus and thenpossibly rewind if they missed
it.
So that was all intentionalunderstanding my audience was no
longer only adults, but alsowanting to make sure adults
(30:45):
didn't feel like it was too much, and I'm glad to hear from you
it doesn't feel like it's toomuch.
Fonz Mendoza (30:50):
No, not at all.
Actually, it's really like youmentioned.
It's really like you mentioned.
It's really engaging, becauseyou know, you're driving, you're
listening, and then like you'reabsolutely right.
I mean, sometimes you get outof work and you're trying to
decompress, so you've gotsomething going on, and then all
of a sudden, it's like you hearlike ding.
You're like, oh, okay, you know, and then you're back and then
I'll, and interacting with it,and that's the one thing that I
(31:16):
do love and I'm going to goahead and bring this up to onto
the screen.
So this is the podcast.
We'll definitely be linkingthis up in the show notes.
It's AI for Kids, and you canfind this on Buzzsprout and I
know that you can listen to iton your favorite podcast player
too as well.
But what I do want to ask is,or actually share with our
audience, is just really some ofthe titles that you do have
(31:39):
here and, of course, some of therecent guests.
But I love this, like where youhave R is for reinforcement and
then you go through thealphabet, like there's N is for
neuro learning and then Q is forquantum computing, and I love
the way that you label this.
You know, this is forelementary.
This is for middle school, youknow, and so I think that this
is a fantastic resource forteachers to be able to have in
(32:03):
their classrooms when they havea little bit of extra time or
they can do a little miniassignment.
This could be a station just toeven just go through the
alphabet and understand this alittle bit more, tying it into
digital literacy and you knowthings of that sort, and this is
great.
I mean, to me it's weird,because this is, to me, as
(32:25):
interactive of a podcast as youcan find, you know, even through
Buzzsprout, because of thesounds, you know.
It really engages you andreally captures your attention
and making sure that you're notmissing those important bits of
information.
So I think that's great, and Ialso love your format, where you
have the little game show,questions for your guests and so
(32:45):
on.
So, guys, please, I promise youyou will not be disappointed
Make sure that you check out AIfor kids, and I promise you it's
not just for kids.
You yourself, as an adult, asan educator, as a professional,
will definitely be engaged withthe wonderful conversations that
you have there, and just theformat is fantastic, and I think
(33:05):
Amber really knocked it out ofthe park, as far as really going
back and digging in deep, tothat KISS philosophy, you know,
and just really putting somegreat stuff out there.
So, Amber, thank you for that.
So just a couple more questions,Amber, and then we'll go to our
final, last three questionsthat I always ask our guests as
we get ready for closing.
But I want to ask you here asfar as and I always got to bring
(33:28):
it up, you know, because it'spart of my research too as well
it's just navigating the ethicsof all of this.
So, of course, as you know, asit continues to move forward,
we're gonna get new largelanguage models.
You know we had Manus, we hadDeepSeek and we have many, many
more.
So I wanna ask you, as far asyou know the ethics of AI you
(33:50):
know it's really pressing thatwe do have these conversations.
So how do you address thebalance between that innovation
and responsibility in your workthrough AI, DigiTeles and
through your podcast?
Amber Ivey (34:02):
So one thing that's beyond important for me and I'm
glad this is something that Iknow you care about as well is
that ethics has to be at theforefront of this conversation.
To the point, even in mypodcast I added a pre-show note
that's basically like hey kids,ai is great, but also it can
cause harm.
Um, because I don't want to beresponsible as someone who's
(34:24):
helping kids understand ai, notleaving that up front every
single time, and even in some ofthe younger kids episodes I
make sure I say, as always,there's also bad things
associated with this, and thisis what you should look out for.
It's not to make them afraid ofit, but to make them understand
that there's this notnecessarily new a technology
(34:44):
that's been around for a whilesince the 50s and application
right, but it's now new in a waythat we have access to it and
it's in our hands, in our homesand places where we live, we go
to school, we walk, we drive,like it's literally everywhere
and embedded in a way that wenow see the forwards behind the
scenes.
So, because we can now see itand we as human beings are now
(35:06):
allowed to interact with it, weare then held responsible for
what we do with it and whathappens with this technology.
So for me I also say to kidsit's like I don't want you to
just be users of AI, like, ifthat's what you want to do,
that's also totally fine.
But I want them to understandthey can be the next creators of
it, and being the next creatorof it means that we may have an
ethical responsibility to takecare of our fellow man who are
(35:29):
using these tools.
Often people who are makingthese tools are not at the
intersection of different spacesand different communities,
different cultures, differentdata sets, different backgrounds
, where they can see everything.
I, as a human being, would bewrong to say I know everything
about.
Every community or everything Ishould think about are
(35:50):
developed by one type of personor one person from one
background, or me as anindividual.
If I'm the only person theredeveloping this, I have no view
outside of myself.
That's probably not the bestway to build anything we want to
build for the person who hasleast access, so that we all
have access and we make surethat everyone's protected.
(36:11):
Too many times tools have wentout.
Social media is a big one,right.
Too many tools, phones orthings have went out.
Social media is a big one,right?
Too many tools, phones orthings have went out like social
media and then we just let itrun and then we're like, oh my
gosh, bullying is up, suicide isup, depression is up.
In kids, they're now dealingwith imposter syndrome Because
we as a society didn't decide totake ownership in the shared
(36:33):
resource that we're all usingand make sure our most
vulnerable mostly kids and thosewho cannot protect themselves
are protected.
So I talk about AI, always withAI ethics.
If we do not do this right, wewill continue to widen the gap.
The gap is already widening aswe speak.
Different AI tools, as we'veseen, have had adverse impacts
for people who look closer toyou and I than those who do not
(36:56):
look like us.
For women, what does that looklike?
For people who speak differentlanguages, what does that look
like?
The AI large language modelswas really built off of Western
data sets, so what does thatmean?
That means they may think alittle bit differently than I
would think on a day-to-daybasis, and we got to make sure
that.
If that is happening, we wantto know about it, we want to
(37:18):
make a decision on how we'regoing to improve that, and the
kids who are growing up thatthey have an opportunity to say
because they're really good atit.
That's not right, or this shouldbe done another way, or you
should think about this.
Kids, young people, need to beat the table because as we get
older, we often forget about allthose things that we were
passionate about when we wereyounger and forget about the
questions and the curiosity.
(37:39):
So we need to make sure thosepeople are at the table and the
people we're building these forare at the table, so that we
have a more ethical AI,understanding that bias is
inherently built into how themodels work.
Like you're literally doingweights and things like that, we
understand that.
But it shouldn't be built in away that harms someone, takes
away their liberty, freedom orany of their rights that they
(38:00):
are granted to being in thiscountry, we got to make sure we
protect people.
I don't care if it tells you topick a red dress over a blue
one, but if it takes your kidaway from your home because of
some analytic tool that's in agovernment child welfare office,
that needs to be as close toright as possible if you're
using it to make those type ofdecisions.
So ai.
(38:20):
Ethics is always at the frontof this conversation for me and
it should never go away andwe're never going to get it
fully right.
So we got to keep working on itall the way through until this
thing becomes agi or whatever isgoing to be at the next level
yes, no, I agree with you.
Fonz Mendoza (38:33):
Thank you so much for sharing that and just really
, you know, very passionateabout it.
You know, and you and I arevery in line with you, know your
response, and this is reallyone of the things that I've
definitely been voicing, andoftentimes it seems that our
voices are really drowned out bya lot of the hype and the
excitement that is out therebecause of people that are all
(38:53):
about, hey, let's move fast andbreak things.
But we know that move fast andbreak things doesn't work and
it's okay to slow down, to gofast, but you know it's it's one
of those things too, that wesee it on social media, we see
it on LinkedIn.
I know you and I both interacton LinkedIn and it just seems
like those voices are the onesthat are heard the most, but
then the ones that are, you know, know, just really just asking
(39:14):
you to be more cautious and justbe more ethical about this.
It's like, oh, no, no, no,you're, you're the ones that are
going to cause us to fallbehind on all this race and, uh,
you know that we're movingahead and we need to go do these
things, but again, I, I agreewith you 100.
So thank you so much for beingvery honest, genuine and
authentic with that answer, allright, well, this has been an
(39:34):
amazing, amazing episode andit's definitely filled my bucket
.
I it's amazing, like okay, sothis whole time I'll be honest
with you I've been very likestarstruck, just because and
it's weird, because it's likeI'm listening to your podcast
and I'm a fan of, and now I'minterviewing you as the host,
which is really cool, andbecause, also, the work that
you're doing.
(39:55):
So it's been fantastic and it'sgreat, and thank you for
spending a little bit of yourmorning with me and, of course,
with our audience members, whichI kept repeating.
Please make sure that you govisit AI DigiTales, make sure
you visit AI for Kids, make sureyou subscribe, make sure that
you sign up for the emailnewsletter, check out the books,
check out the resources, andall of that will be linked in in
the show note, or linked in theshow notes, I should say.
(40:17):
And, of course, you'll be ableto follow Amber on LinkedIn as
well and all her socials thatwill be posted to also.
So make sure that you connectwith her.
She's a wonderful resource andI promise you that she will take
anything that is out there andshe'll, you know, make it simple
for you with her kissphilosophy.
I promise All right, well,right, well, amber, let's go
ahead and wrap up with the lastthree questions that I always
(40:39):
send my audience members beforethe show.
So hopefully you're ready.
So here we go.
Question number one in thecurrent state of education.
Why I should start this the wayI normally do is, as we know,
every superhero has a weaknessand for superman, that
kryptonite just weakened him.
It was just like, ah, such apain point.
So I want to ask you, in thecurrent state of, we'll say, ai,
(41:03):
what would you say is yourcurrent AI kryptonite?
Amber Ivey (41:08):
My current kryptonite is the amount of
models and feeling like everytime a new one comes out that I
don't know what to do withmyself and cause it's so many
coming out all the time.
So it's like if you're tryingto then tell everyone you're
helping them AI literacy butthen you don't know or haven't
played with the newest model.
It's like did I mess up?
(41:29):
Am I not where I need to be?
But I had someone actually toldme this week.
They were like you don't needto know all the models, amber,
it's okay.
Like the underlying foundationis what you need to know, and
that's helping me feel a littlebit less like it's my kryptonite
, but for right now it is.
The number of models stressesme out daily.
Fonz Mendoza (41:46):
So I guess it's kind of almost like that fear of
missing out, like just like, ohlike.
Oh my gosh, like I just learnedthis one and now now like here's
this next one, and so on.
But you know what?
That was some great soundadvice that you just shared, or
that they shared with you.
It's like, hey, it's okay,everything kind of like under
the hood, still very similar,just slightly different, but
really it's just.
As long as you focus on sharingthose wonderful skills that
(42:09):
will help students, educatorsand professionals be able to
navigate that space.
I think that, in the long run,is what's going to help them.
So just keep doing what you'redoing, my friend, all right.
Question number two is if youcould have a billboard with
anything on it, what would it beand why?
Amber Ivey (42:25):
I'm cheating.
It would say AI for kids youneed to be literate in this
technology.
The reason I say that isbecause I made my podcast it's's
very simple name, ai for kids,after messing up on the ai
because the system, because thatwas not clear.
But I want people to understandlike ai is something that kids
should know and should learn,and that would be my billboard
(42:45):
simply ai for kids something youshould learn um and make sure
your kids are literate in itlove it.
Fonz Mendoza (42:52):
And don't forget, you got to put your qr code on
there, so if people drive bythey can scan it and it goes
straight to the show and theyget linked and connected with
you you know it started becauseof this question yeah, all right
, here we go.
And the last question, amber,is if you could trade places
with one person for a day, whowould it be and why?
Amber Ivey (43:14):
so this one was a hard question because there's
like a bunch of people that Iwas thinking about.
I'm like, should I changeplaces with someone in AI?
Would I change places withsomeone in government?
Because I have like this weirdintersection and I decided on
it's gonna feel like a kind ofweird answer, I guess maybe, but
I would love to trade placeswith Sal Khan of Khan Academy,
(43:38):
only because everything they'redoing right now even beforehand,
like they had early access toOpenAI for the tutoring which is
now like Conmigo.
I love what he did in like hisstory of like starting with
helping out his cousins.
I believe it was understandmath and breaking it down, and I
love that he takes complicatedtopics and breaks it down the
(43:58):
way that everyone understandsand grew that into a company
that now we all use.
I remember being, when it firstcame out, my mom sending it to
me I think I was in collegesaying, hey, you've heard of
Khan Academy, check it out.
And it's just a guy like upthere with his videos and to see
what he's turned that into isjust so impressive to me, and
just to get into his shoes for asecond to see how he's running
such an amazing company reallyis an inspiration to me.
(44:21):
Other folks would be likelypoliticians or other AI leaders,
but that's who I probably wouldchange places with, because
it's mostly aligned with what Iwould love to do and aspire to
become.
Fonz Mendoza (44:30):
Yeah, and I love it.
I mean, it kind of falls inline with what you said, just
taking something complex andmaking it simple.
But I just want to let you knowthat you are already doing that
, my friend.
Amber Ivey (44:40):
And.
Fonz Mendoza (44:40):
I really do appreciate it because and I only
say that because sometimes, aspodcasters and the work that we
do, sometimes we may not getthat immediate feedback, and
it's every once in a while youget that feedback.
But I just want to let you knowthat your podcast has really
made an impact on me in the waythat you present things Again,
taking those hard concepts,making them easy, and not only
for us as adults, but for thelittles too as well.
(45:03):
So keep doing what you're doing, my friend.
And again, guys, if you haven'tfollowed Amber yet, please make
sure that you do so.
I know I've repeated thatseveral times, but I promise you
this is something that is great.
That's going to be beneficial.
The resources and the knowledgethat you're going to get from
the interviews and, of course,from the website and the
resources, is definitely goingto be wonderful.
So make sure that you followAmber.
(45:24):
And again, guys, thank you somuch as always for all of your
support.
Please make sure that you visitour website at myedtechlife
where you can check out thisamazing episode and the other
300, and I believe it's 15 or 16episodes, one of those, but
make sure that you go check outall the episodes, because I
promise you, guys, you will finda little something for you to
(45:47):
sprinkle onto what you arealready doing.
Great, so please make sure thatyou do that.
If you haven't followed us onall socials, make sure you
follow us at myedtechlife on allsocials and jump over to your
youtube channel.
Make sure that you hit thethumbs up subscribe to our
channel.
We're this this close to athousand subscribers and we'd
appreciate if you were ourthousandth subscriber.
(46:07):
That would be amazing.
And again, as always, thank youto our amazing sponsors, as I
mentioned to you in the verybeginning Book Creator, thank
you, as always, for your support.
Edu8, yellowdig, thank you.
Thank you for making this showpossible and believing in our
mission to bring amazingeducators, professionals,
authors and everybody from thisspace to be able to share more
(46:27):
about AI, share our experiences,so that we can continue to grow
together and just really adaptto this landscape.
So thank you, as always, alwaysfor all of your support.
And until next time, my friends, don't forget, stay techie.
Thank you.
Hello everybody and welcome to another great
episode of my EdTech life.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this wonderful day,
wherever in the world thatyou're joining us from.
Thank you, as always, for allof your support.
We appreciate all the likes,the shares, the follows.
Thank you so much forinteracting with our content.
And a big shout out to ourwonderful sponsor, book Creator.
(00:53):
You know I got to have mycaffeine and I want to thank
Book Creator for this wonderfulmug and the work that they're
doing.
So don't forget that it is bean author month, so make sure
that you go sign up for bookcreator, use code my ed tech
life and you get three months ofpremium service.
So please make sure that youcheck that out.
And, of course, all of thatwill be in the show notes.
(01:14):
But, guys, it's been a whileI've been out.
I went to Puerto Rico and itwas amazing doing a conference
there with tech, my school.
But it is always always awesometo be back behind the mic,
loving and you know doing whatwell, loving what I'm doing as
far as podcasting, but, morethan anything, connecting with
some amazing and wonderfuleducators, professionals you
(01:38):
know, people that are out therein the space that are advocating
for AI, and especially AI forkids, in the space that are
advocating for AI, andespecially AI for kids.
So I would love to welcome tothe show today Amber Ivey.
Amber, how are you doing today?
Amber Ivey (01:50):
I'm doing great.
How are you?
Fonz Mendoza (01:52):
I am doing wonderful, amber, like we were
talking a little bit in thepre-show.
Again, I just recently foundyour podcast, too, as well, and
I just enjoy the format, like Iwas telling you the the
questioning the guests that youhave had, and I just love the
ABCs to have AI that you've beendoing, and so I find it to be a
(02:13):
wonderful resource for parents,educators, really anybody in
our space that is interested inAI, because you do such a great
job at just really going in deepbut doing it in a fun way that
is engaging, and I definitely amengaged on my drive home from
work or even on my drive to work.
So thank you so much for thework that you're doing there as
(02:34):
well.
Amber Ivey (02:36):
So glad it resonates .
I know the title is AI for Kids, but the secret is it is for AI
for everyone.
We break it down in a simpleway and we really want to make
sure parents and teachers havethe resources they need to help
kids understand AI in thisoutpacing AI world.
Fonz Mendoza (02:51):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for beinghere today, but for our audience
members, amber, who are notfamiliar with your work yet, but
after the show today, I hopeand I'm telling everybody and
all my followers make sure thatyou go over to our webpage and
make sure that you go over tothe podcast and subscribe,
because I promise you that youwill definitely find some
wonderful resources that you cansprinkle onto it.
You're already doing great.
(03:12):
So, amber, for all of thoseaudience members who are not
familiar with your work yet, canyou tell us a little bit of
your journey?
You know your context withinnow in the AI space.
How did that come about?
Amber Ivey (03:26):
So my journey did not start in the AI space.
Well, technically it did.
My initials are AI, sotechnically I was born into this
world of AI, right, but no, itactually started in the data
space.
So my background is in data.
I say I do government data orhelp governments with data by
day and I help kids understandAI by night, but my career has
(03:47):
been in the data space for sometime, so I've been helping out
governments, for the most part,learn how to use data to make
decisions and now, because of AIjust being an extension of data
, like that's the thing thatpowers data, over the past,
probably eight years or so sixto eight years or so I've been
doing research in the space.
Um, probably eight years or so,six to eight years or so I've
been doing research in the spaceand then also um getting more
(04:08):
active in it by lending lendingmy voice to an ai avatar.
My voice is actually using anai avatar.
That's um by this organizationcalled create lab.
She travels the world.
She speaks multiple languages,um, including spanish, russian,
uh, japanese.
I just tested these languageout, languages out with some
kids, so I learned that she doesspeak a bunch of stuff.
I didn't know she speaks, butI've been active in this space
(04:28):
mostly because data is anextension of AI and data work is
very important to me, because Ibelieve data helps people make
better decisions, particularlygovernment, when they're helping
people get access to servicesor improve the lives of citizens
, because that is their main job, and because of that I was able
to do research in AI, led someprojects that had AI within them
as well, and then decided toreally look at how I wanted to
(04:51):
think about AI and I wanted tofocus on kids, because adults
were a little bit scared ofthings.
And when ChatGPT came out in2022, at this point I can't
remember which year I wasalready the voice of the avatar
I told you about, so I hadalready interacted with chat,
gpt or GPT through that, becausethe company had access to
(05:15):
OpenAI's research tools at thetime.
We're testing it out.
So when it came out, everyonewas like oh, ban it, do this.
So what is this thing going on?
I was like, wait, I've beenlike playing with this thing and
the voice of this thing forsome time.
Now it's not as scary as itseems.
Yes, we should be cautious, butwe should think about what that
looked like.
And then that's when I decidedto switch over to kids, because
I was podcasting about AI foradults and helping them
(05:37):
understand it.
But as we get older, we get alittle bit nervous.
We're not interested in the newthings that are coming up often
, and me I get it.
I don't like change unless it'sa change I want to have happen.
So what would it mean then tofocus on the group that's
already growing up in the age ofAI Someone said this to me and
I think it's a good point isthat kids that are born today,
(05:57):
their first interaction with theinternet is AI, through Alexa,
google and all these differenttools.
And that was the moment wheremy mind, like, really opened up
and said if their firstinteraction is with AI and their
AI first generation, how thendo we make sure they're prepared
in 10, 15 years, when they'regoing to be in the workforce and
all these tools are going to beintegrated?
So that's a little bit of likehow I got here, starting with AI
(06:19):
excuse me, data and then movedover to AI.
Fonz Mendoza (06:24):
That is wonderful and you know, actually it kind
of seems like just really anatural progression, like you
said.
You know the type of work thatyou were doing and then, of
course, moving into the AI spaceand you know, I agree with you
with what you said.
It's just also that fear ofchange, and especially in adults
, in November 2022, when thiswhole thing came out, it was
just like, from then on, like mypodcast I've been doing and
(06:46):
interviewing, and it's justheavy conversations on AI and
it's just great because rightnow I'm just researching those
conversations and doing likefirst quarter, second quarter,
third quarter, fourth quarterand just kind of seeing how the
themes have changed, how it wentfrom panic, panic like no, we
don't want this to slowly likethat slow acceptance and just
kind of seeing it.
And then, of course, now it'sit's really now that in at least
(07:10):
in the education space, findingthose main players within the
education space now saying, okay, like now, how can we really
ideally integrate thistechnology into the classroom?
Because, as you said, you knowmany, you know times walking
around in the shopping andthings of that sort.
You have students that have adevice, students that you can
(07:30):
actually hear them just controlthe device by saying, hey, alexa
, or, you know, hey, siri, andthings of that sort.
You know this is the world thatthey are growing up in.
But, at the same time, what I dolove that you said is just kind
of, you know, moving yourenergy into the space for
students and for kids to be ableto explain this technology to
(07:51):
them, and I think that'sfantastic how the technology,
how you as a human, can be ableto manipulate, as far as you
know, if there's something thatyou're looking for, you know
specifically the context andthings of that sort to be able
(08:12):
to, you know, even look at thatoutput and make sure that we
educate them to make sure thatthey're looking for outputs that
are accurate to as well.
And so the one thing that I dolove about your podcast is just
those little gems and the waythat, even speaking with amazing
guests that you've had and onethat I'll mention to you like I
always say, I just gave a shoutout pre-recording and now I'll
(08:33):
give a shout out here in therecording is Dr Nika McGee,
because she is fantastic and herand I have had the opportunity
to present, and she has anawesome session on AI for
Littles.
That is like unplug and it isfantastic even for adults to be
able to understand those things.
So I love the work that youkind of both are doing and kind
of in the same space andadjacent to one another, and you
(08:56):
through the podcast, and I knowwe'll talk a little bit about
AI, digitales 2 as well.
But I want to ask you you knowjust deep dive into you
mentioned, you know, workingwith data to drive efficiency
and decision-making and all ofthose things Like so how has
that influenced and I know youtalked a little bit more about
that, but really targeting withkids how have those experiences
(09:19):
influenced your approach tointegrating AI in education?
Amber Ivey (09:23):
Oh yeah, so my first job out of my master's program.
So originally I was in privatesector doing logistics, which is
like heavy data, heavilyefficient, heavily focused on
efficiencies.
And I went to school to get mymaster's with the goal of
helping government be moreefficient and work better.
Didn't know how, didn't knowthe way I was going to do it,
but I took a performancemanagement class and one of the
(09:43):
professors told me about thisprogram called StateSat at the
time, which was a data programin the state of Maryland that
was helping the governor at thetime, former Governor O'Malley
use data to drive outcomes andget towards his goals.
He had goals around decreasinginfant mortality, maternal
mortality, decreasing the COemissions that were going into
(10:09):
the climate, helping to reduceviolence that was happening in
the state.
He had a lot of different goalshe was focused on and those
goals all had data attached tothem, so we were able to go in
and help analyze those data tohelp the leaders of the state
understand what was happening.
What I learned there is a lot ofleaders in the state or
anywhere I work with government.
(10:30):
People come into governmentbecause they want to do a good
job and make the world a betterplace.
They may not have a dataanalyst background or be able to
look at numbers in a differentway, so it was our job to make
sure we put in front of themwhat the numbers said in an easy
way so they can make a decision.
Why I bring that up is often, Ithink, across any career field
(10:50):
we're in, we get very technicalor we make it so hard to
understand and we try to makethings complicated when the
reality is it's best to keepthings simple.
Very, very early on in mygovernment career, how to take
complex concepts, data, imagesor whatever it was that was
happening, and explain it tosomeone, no matter their
background, in a way that theygot immediately and could make a
(11:12):
decision off of that.
How did that translate to AIfor?
Fonz Mendoza (11:15):
kids Go ahead.
Oh no, no, no.
I am so sorry to interruptthere.
Continue, continue.
Amber Ivey (11:20):
And then, as it relates to AI for kids because
I've had the background in doingthat and not to mention, my dad
also was in the Army they havea slogan called keep it simple,
with a bad word at the end.
But keep it simple is the partI keep, because when you're like
deploying missions or doingwork, you have to keep it simple
so that you don't get someoneinjured or you're able to do
what you need to do.
So that's my model for life ingeneral.
(11:40):
Like how can I explain thingsin a way that's super simple for
someone to understand so thenthey can take action, because
I'm not here for like justsharing, and then we're like
doing nothing with it.
Like how can you actually helpsomeone do something with their
the information they receive?
So with AI for Kids, it was aneasier transition.
I was doing the same thing forAI for Adults and breaking down
tough topics.
But it was also an easytransition for me to say to kids
(12:03):
, parents and teachers this isthis weird thing called neural
networks or this is this thingcalled large language models.
Let's break it down in the mostsimplest way so anyone can
understand, and then we takeaway the intimidation, we take
away the fear around it and weallow someone to make a decision
, because they actually have thesame information that you and I
have, who may be in the spaceand living and breathing it
(12:25):
every day.
Fonz Mendoza (12:27):
I love it.
You know, a lot of the thingsthat you said just really
resonate with me and, believe itor not, like the way that
you're speaking, it's likeyou're speaking my language and
it really fills my heart becauseit's very interesting that even
I myself came from privatesector and then I came into
education and it's very weirdbecause I I kind of see things
in a different way, in adifferent lens.
But I'm also the very same waythat the way that you explained
(12:49):
it, that I love to getinformation and dissect that
information and present it to myaudience, whether it's teachers
, whether it's professionals andso on, in a specific way that
works with them.
And I also follow the KISSphilosophy, except that my K, my
kiss philosophy, I say it'skeep it simple and streamlined
(13:09):
and so and so I've done a lot ofpresentations like that.
But I love that hook where it'slike, ah, guys, come on, we
just got to do the kissphilosophy, and everybody's like
, oh my gosh.
And I said, no, keep it simpleand streamlined, which is really
what you're doing in that senseof taking all of this I mean
with so much that has come outsince 2022, and for you to be
able to really share thatinformation in a wonderful way,
(13:33):
like I mentioned.
You know listening to yourpodcast and you know the way
that you make it so easy tounderstand and you're talking to
some very high level guests tooas well that have wonderful
experiences and wonderfulbackgrounds in coding, in large
language models, in presenting.
But the way that you questionand draw out those answers, you
(13:56):
do it in such a way where I'mlike, oh, okay, so that's what
that means and oh, I can seethat connection and so on.
So I absolutely love that andyour heart for that is in the
right place, because wedefinitely need to make sure
that we simplify all of thisinformation to really take away
a lot of those barriers to entry, like you mentioned, obviously
number one being the fear andyou know I like myself and I
(14:19):
know I really that's.
This is why I really, you know,with Dr Nika McGee, her and I
really get along is like we justconsider ourselves cautious
advocates where we're kind ofright in the middle, like I'm
not too far to you know, likeyes, let's go all in, and I'm
not too far into like no, no, no, like kind of just there in the
middle and just trying to bringand reconcile both worlds.
(14:39):
And that's why I love havingthese conversations with amazing
guests like you, to be able tosee both sides and just have
people kind of take, you know,the good that is on this side,
the good that is on this side,and just kind of make it their
own and see where they are intheir adoption phase.
Because I always say there's,you know, those speedboats,
those tugboats and then thoseanchors.
(15:00):
So where is it that we fall inand how can we just continue to
move forward at at any pace?
You know, I don't know if youfind this in your space, but
sometimes there's the, thosepeople that really put in that
fear and saying if you're notdoing this, you're ruining
education and if you're notdoing this, you're ruining the
kids future, like you should beon this, you know, all the time.
(15:23):
And they just really, you know,rile people up and just causing
them, you know, just with alittle bit of that fear.
What are your thoughts on that?
Like, what has been yourexperience with that?
Amber Ivey (15:35):
I feel like there's every movement that happens.
We have that type of voicecoming through the void of
saying like, of voice comingthrough the void of saying like
you're going to miss this, and Iused to believe it for a very
long time and then I realized ifI miss this, there's another
thing coming the next day, andthen there's another thing
coming the next year, anotherthing coming the next 10 years.
(15:56):
Regardless of what it is Like,there are skill sets that I do
want kids to learn.
I think that's important forall of us to be AI literate.
But do I believe if a kiddoesn't fully understand AI,
will they not make it in society?
I don't believe that, because Ialso know that people who are
investing in AI are alsoinvesting in outdoor sports and
outdoor activities that havenothing to do with a computer,
(16:17):
because they don't know what'sgoing to happen with AI and they
don't know if people are goingto be so tired of being
integrated into computers thatthey're going to go then want to
do more things that are awayfrom a computer.
So we all don't know 100%.
Either way, I tell kids thinkabout how AI STEM, whatever the
topic du jour is of the day howcan that integrate into things
(16:39):
you want to do and enhance thething you want to do, like I was
just speaking to some kids lastFriday for Pi Day and I always
ask do you have a career thatSTEM or AI will not touch?
And of course, I have kidsraising their hand left and
right.
Some folks are like I want to bea cook, I want to be a soccer
player, I want to be an artist.
And then I have the other kidstell them why AI, stem, are
(17:02):
still going to be a part of thatcareer and what you find is
that I don't have to tell them.
The kids around them, even theones who raised their hands and
said their career would not beimpacted, are able to tell the
other young person like hey, no,actually it's used in the shoes
that the soccer player iswearing.
And if you want to be a reallygood soccer player, you're going
to want to think about math andangles and kicks.
(17:23):
Or if you're a great cook, youwant to think about measuring
the perfect recipe or et cetera,or using YouTube or whatever to
share your cooking videos.
So I say that because kids andthe generation that are
currently born are going tofigure it out.
Most of the careers that arehere today we could have told
kids we couldn't have.
There's no way we could havetold kids that YouTube
(17:44):
influencers would be a careerthat kids are talking about, or
being on TikTok or dancing andchoreographed dance and all
these things that are now makingpeople a livable wage right Not
in the million dollar version,but the people who are using it
to make an income on the side,who had never known that was a
job, the Ubers of the world, allthese things.
So I caution against peoplesaying if you don't do this,
(18:05):
because I know that humans areinnovative and creative and when
pressure they're gonna figureit out and figure out a way
(18:40):
no-transcript are going torevolutionize education and test
scores were going to go up, andI still haven't seen a lot of
that yet.
Fonz Mendoza (18:50):
Then Chromebooks came about, and you know that
new technology, everybody needsto be one-on-one, and you know
things of that sort, but stillhaven't seen a lot of those
results yet as far as theeducation.
And so the next thing will comeand, like you mentioned, you
know I know Dr McGee's alwaysshe's already talking about
quantum computing and I knowyou've recently had those
conversations on the show too aswell.
So then, like you mentioned,it's like you think that this is
(19:11):
it.
I mean, just wait till what'scoming out, either later this
year or next year and so on, andso.
But I do love the fact that youaddress the skill set that is
important for a lot of, you know, young men and women to have at
such an early age to reallygrow into that just the critical
thinking skills, thecollaboration, the communication
, the problem solving,troubleshooting, all of those
(19:34):
things that really just are.
I think and I always thoughtthis is what I've already been
doing in my classroom when doingmy lessons and doing my
projects and so on.
So oftentimes I just feel thatit, it they take it to that
whole other level where, no,you're, you're really missing
out.
But thank you so much for thatuh reply.
I really loved it.
Now I want to want to ask youabout AI DigiTales.
(19:57):
So I want to ask you whatinspired you to create AI
DigiTales and how do youenvision that or come up with
that idea of engaging younglearners and educators to
understand and interact with AIin that manner?
Amber Ivey (20:12):
So when I decided to switch to AI for kids, it was
just one little idea.
So I was playing with MittJourney one day and I was doing
a prompt that basically saidhave a little girl in Baltimore
meeting a robot in Baltimorecity that's lost, and played
around with it.
Had a whole bunch of images inone image.
I was just looking at it.
(20:32):
I'm like this could be a book,like let's actually make this
into a book.
So that became the AI meets AIbook.
It became a bestseller onAmazon and then I was like wait,
people actually want to hearabout this.
What else is this thing?
And then that's where AIDigiTales came from and the
reason why it's called AIDigiTales it's like a play on
digital but AI DigiTales.
(20:54):
It's like a play on digital butAI digi tales.
And also understanding that,because it started with a book,
my background and the underlyingpieces of it are storytelling
and like edutainment is what thecompany is focused on.
Because I know for me, sesameStreet, schoolhouse Rock Barney
for my younger siblings that Ihad to listen to because they
were in the room, all thosesongs I still remember to this
(21:14):
day and all those tips about howa bill is developed through
schoolhouse rock or whatever itis.
I remember because there waslike an edutainment factor,
whether it was song,storytelling or helping me think
about that.
So my thing is that AIDigiTales is the first part of a
kid's journey and we'replanting a seed, or even getting
the ground ready for a seed,and my hope is that when a kid
(21:36):
thinks about what they'velearned later like I had, a
four-year-old mom reached outand said their kid was talking
about algorithms One.
Algorithms is not afour-year-old word, but we've
TikTok'd them that in the AI foralgorithms and now they're
using that word.
She may not even know what thatmeans, even after listening to
the podcast, but what she willknow at 10, 15, and 20, means
even after listening to thepodcast.
(21:57):
But what she will know at 10,15, and 20, oh, I learned the
basics of that and thenunderstand how to apply that in
life and that's how life works.
Someone just talked to me aboutthis recently Dipti Bidet at
Little Lit AI.
She was talking about howlearning about AI or learning in
general is a whole frameworkfor the child.
So it's not just in theclassroom, it's not just at home
(22:19):
, it's not just walking throughyour neighborhood.
You're learning across so manydifferent mechanisms.
So my goals for AI DigiTales tobe an AI for kids entertainment
company that gives them a piecethat then adds on to their
greater learning and itencourages teachers I know some
teachers play it in theirclassrooms allows teachers to
use it who may not have accessto AI technology.
(22:39):
And the other piece is that wewant to make sure that kids, no
matter their zip code, getaccess to this.
So most of the stuff we talkabout, even if you listen to,
like the AI for Kids ABC series,a lot of the things you do,
you're not doing with a computer.
You're doing with pieces ofpaper, with your friends nearby,
you're using what you have tounderstand the concept, because
it's not missed for me that alot of kids don't have access to
(23:02):
technology and, coming from adata and government background,
I know communities.
They're still on dial-up andpeople are shocked every time I
say that Dial-up, not broadband,and do not have access to
internet and don't have accessto cell service.
So for kids who are able tohear this stuff at school or
other places, they can then gohome and do an activity where
they may not have a computeraccess to high speed internet.
(23:23):
I want to make sure kids areable to do it, no matter what,
and I'm just a piece of thatpuzzle, a piece of that story.
Fonz Mendoza (23:29):
I love it and, if you don't mind, what I'm going
to do is I'm going to go aheadand just share, so bring this on
, just so for our audiencemembers that are going to be
checking out the video.
So, here it is ai digi tells,and I love this, the layout.
She, amber, has videos.
There's some so many greatthings of course, all the
resources here, the books, butthis is the one thing that I I
(23:52):
love right here, the ai digitodds.
This is the one thing that Ilove right here, the AI Digitods
.
This is wonderful, and so Ithink, amber, you really thought
about this and just the waythat you have here just these AI
Digitods characters and, ofcourse, the representation
that's there, too as well, andso this is something that is
fantastic, that is engaging, andthe one thing that I love is
(24:14):
that, like you mentioned, you'vegot resources here that could
be played either at school, theycould be played at home, and,
of course, the student is goingto be learning the ABCs of AI,
and this is something that isfantastic.
And, of course, guys, this willall be linked in the show notes
.
You can definitely check outthe website, and I do want to
talk about the podcast now.
(24:35):
You can definitely check outthe website and I do want to
talk about the podcast now.
So, as, like I mentioned to youas a listener and a fairly new
listener but I've listened toabout six episodes now and
everything, and you know, andI'm going to continue listening
to them.
But one thing that I loved aboutthat is you know just the way
that you take all of this.
You know, you know, I guess,information about AI and
(24:57):
breaking it down.
Like we talked a little bitabout this, simplifying it for a
child.
Can you, amber, walk me throughthat process of how you take,
you know, large language models.
You know if you take, you know,algorithms and how do you,
what's your process in breakingit down to explain it to a child
?
Amber Ivey (25:21):
So because of my background, I've had to break
topics down my whole entire life.
So it's helped that because ofthe way I've grown up.
And also another thing I dowant to bring up about AI
DigiTalks which matters here isthat all those AI DigiTalks are
representative of kids I've metthroughout my history and my
childhood.
My dad was in the Army, my momwas in the Navy when they met,
and so my dad stayed on in theNavy and my mom got out.
(25:42):
Excuse me, my dad stayed on inthe Army, my mom got out of the
Navy, so we traveled around alot so I was able to meet a
bunch of different kids fromdifferent backgrounds.
So for me, my world was alwaysfull of kids of different
backgrounds and I didn't knowanything but that.
And because of that and movingaround a lot, I had to learn how
to adjust to where I was and tobe able to fit into whatever
(26:05):
cultural context I was in,whatever was happening within my
environment, the differenttypes of people I was
interacting.
I became a master adjuster, soI'll say that that has helped me
out a lot.
So now, when it comes to justAI for kids, I try to make sure
one thing is like the age level.
(26:25):
So originally I wasn't surewhat age level I knew I wanted
to do, like elementary andmiddle school, because a lot of
resources do focus on highschool, particularly around
coding and everyone else, andthere's nothing for like
elementary kids, then middleschool.
So I said I wanted my targetaudience to be four to 12.
I talked to a bunch of kidsabout this to try to figure out
what makes sense for them, and Ialso get to test this stuff out
(26:47):
in person or virtually when I'mdoing AI for kids workshops,
which has been helpful in thatthey're like my case study.
For that and because of AI, Ialso use AI to help clean up my
scripts.
If I'm saying things in a waythat's too complicated.
I'm like make this more simpleor help me say this in a way
that a kid can understand,because I don't want to assume
(27:09):
that I have done it right forthat four-year-old.
For the elementary schoolepisodes and for the middle
schoolers Middle schoolers I'm alittle bit better because I
interact with them a little bitmore and they're a little bit
higher as it relates to wherethey are with understanding
concepts.
But elementary is hard, so Iwill ask AI to help me think
through how do I say this in away that's helpful and it does
(27:32):
help me to create something thatallows me to explain it in a
way and AI also is not perfect,right?
So I start with my script useAI, and then I'm like I don't
like that.
I would explain it like thisand then make the edits to that
and I'm able to help drive AIthrough, using AI to help me
explain it, particularly for myelementary school kids.
Fonz Mendoza (27:51):
Love it.
No-transcript.
(28:23):
How did that inspiration comeabout?
When did you say you know what?
I'm going to go ahead and starta podcast and you know, just
continue the work through thatso I started originally with my
podcast.
Amber Ivey (28:35):
It was called the name was horrible, but I'll say
it it was called AI Decodes theSystem and my whole thing was
like Amber breaking down whichwasn't simple, like as I told
everyone to be simple or kiss amethod.
That was not, but it was mebreaking down different things
about AI data technology in thespace that I live in.
So I was doing that for sometime and then fast forward.
(28:56):
The things happened withChatGPT coming out back in 2022.
And I still kept podcasting.
But then I also realized thatthere was that disconnect that I
was saying I felt like I neededto focus on kids.
So last May I was like I justneed to transition fully to kids
.
And that was after the book itcame out.
I had a few books after thatand I decided that it was time
(29:17):
for me to move on to kidsBecause it's kid-focused.
I was like, all right, I got toput on a different hat and
again talking to young people tosay what matters to you,
listening to other kid-focusedpodcasts and also knowing at the
same time I wanted to befocused on kids, but I knew a
parent or teacher would belistening in the background or
using that to try to get theirkids to listen.
I wanted to make it ageappropriate for young people,
(29:39):
but also not to the point whereadults would be like I don't
want to listen to this, this islike too kiddish or whatever.
So I was trying to play ahelpful balance and I always
tell people before we interviewI'm like there are going to be
sound effects, apologize inadvance if you don't like where
it is, and things like that.
But the goal was, because kidsone already have a short amount
of short attention span, how canwe keep them involved and
(30:02):
remind them to listen again?
When we're doing for elementaryschool kids, five minutes
that's a long time.
So what does that mean?
To make sure?
So that one.
I wanted to have music playingthroughout the whole episode.
So there is music throughoutthe whole episode and then
there's also sound effects.
I understand that middle andhigh schoolers, which are which
is the longer form content, maynot want to hear music the whole
(30:23):
time, but also need that likereminder of hey, listen in or
may have zoned out.
How many of us listen topodcasts and then we zone out
and then we pull back in, tryingto make sure there was sound
effects in it that pulled aperson back in to get them to
listen or refocus and thenpossibly rewind if they missed
it.
So that was all intentionalunderstanding my audience was no
longer only adults, but alsowanting to make sure adults
(30:45):
didn't feel like it was too much, and I'm glad to hear from you
it doesn't feel like it's toomuch.
Fonz Mendoza (30:50):
No, not at all.
Actually, it's really like youmentioned.
It's really like you mentioned.
It's really engaging, becauseyou know, you're driving, you're
listening, and then like you'reabsolutely right.
I mean, sometimes you get outof work and you're trying to
decompress, so you've gotsomething going on, and then all
of a sudden, it's like you hearlike ding.
You're like, oh, okay, you know, and then you're back and then
I'll, and interacting with it,and that's the one thing that I
(31:16):
do love and I'm going to goahead and bring this up to onto
the screen.
So this is the podcast.
We'll definitely be linkingthis up in the show notes.
It's AI for Kids, and you canfind this on Buzzsprout and I
know that you can listen to iton your favorite podcast player
too as well.
But what I do want to ask is,or actually share with our
audience, is just really some ofthe titles that you do have
(31:39):
here and, of course, some of therecent guests.
But I love this, like where youhave R is for reinforcement and
then you go through thealphabet, like there's N is for
neuro learning and then Q is forquantum computing, and I love
the way that you label this.
You know, this is forelementary.
This is for middle school, youknow, and so I think that this
is a fantastic resource forteachers to be able to have in
(32:03):
their classrooms when they havea little bit of extra time or
they can do a little miniassignment.
This could be a station just toeven just go through the
alphabet and understand this alittle bit more, tying it into
digital literacy and you knowthings of that sort, and this is
great.
I mean, to me it's weird,because this is, to me, as
(32:25):
interactive of a podcast as youcan find, you know, even through
Buzzsprout, because of thesounds, you know.
It really engages you andreally captures your attention
and making sure that you're notmissing those important bits of
information.
So I think that's great, and Ialso love your format, where you
have the little game show,questions for your guests and so
(32:45):
on.
So, guys, please, I promise youyou will not be disappointed
Make sure that you check out AIfor kids, and I promise you it's
not just for kids.
You yourself, as an adult, asan educator, as a professional,
will definitely be engaged withthe wonderful conversations that
you have there, and just theformat is fantastic, and I think
(33:05):
Amber really knocked it out ofthe park, as far as really going
back and digging in deep, tothat KISS philosophy, you know,
and just really putting somegreat stuff out there.
So, Amber, thank you for that.
So just a couple more questions,Amber, and then we'll go to our
final, last three questionsthat I always ask our guests as
we get ready for closing.
But I want to ask you here asfar as and I always got to bring
(33:28):
it up, you know, because it'spart of my research too as well
it's just navigating the ethicsof all of this.
So, of course, as you know, asit continues to move forward,
we're gonna get new largelanguage models.
You know we had Manus, we hadDeepSeek and we have many, many
more.
So I wanna ask you, as far asyou know the ethics of AI you
(33:50):
know it's really pressing thatwe do have these conversations.
So how do you address thebalance between that innovation
and responsibility in your workthrough AI, DigiTeles and
through your podcast?
Amber Ivey (34:02):
So one thing that's beyond important for me and I'm
glad this is something that Iknow you care about as well is
that ethics has to be at theforefront of this conversation.
To the point, even in mypodcast I added a pre-show note
that's basically like hey kids,ai is great, but also it can
cause harm.
Um, because I don't want to beresponsible as someone who's
(34:24):
helping kids understand ai, notleaving that up front every
single time, and even in some ofthe younger kids episodes I
make sure I say, as always,there's also bad things
associated with this, and thisis what you should look out for.
It's not to make them afraid ofit, but to make them understand
that there's this notnecessarily new a technology
(34:44):
that's been around for a whilesince the 50s and application
right, but it's now new in a waythat we have access to it and
it's in our hands, in our homesand places where we live, we go
to school, we walk, we drive,like it's literally everywhere
and embedded in a way that wenow see the forwards behind the
scenes.
So, because we can now see itand we as human beings are now
(35:06):
allowed to interact with it, weare then held responsible for
what we do with it and whathappens with this technology.
So for me I also say to kidsit's like I don't want you to
just be users of AI, like, ifthat's what you want to do,
that's also totally fine.
But I want them to understandthey can be the next creators of
it, and being the next creatorof it means that we may have an
ethical responsibility to takecare of our fellow man who are
(35:29):
using these tools.
Often people who are makingthese tools are not at the
intersection of different spacesand different communities,
different cultures, differentdata sets, different backgrounds
, where they can see everything.
I, as a human being, would bewrong to say I know everything
about.
Every community or everything Ishould think about are
(35:50):
developed by one type of personor one person from one
background, or me as anindividual.
If I'm the only person theredeveloping this, I have no view
outside of myself.
That's probably not the bestway to build anything we want to
build for the person who hasleast access, so that we all
have access and we make surethat everyone's protected.
(36:11):
Too many times tools have wentout.
Social media is a big one,right.
Too many tools, phones orthings have went out.
Social media is a big one,right?
Too many tools, phones orthings have went out like social
media and then we just let itrun and then we're like, oh my
gosh, bullying is up, suicide isup, depression is up.
In kids, they're now dealingwith imposter syndrome Because
we as a society didn't decide totake ownership in the shared
(36:33):
resource that we're all usingand make sure our most
vulnerable mostly kids and thosewho cannot protect themselves
are protected.
So I talk about AI, always withAI ethics.
If we do not do this right, wewill continue to widen the gap.
The gap is already widening aswe speak.
Different AI tools, as we'veseen, have had adverse impacts
for people who look closer toyou and I than those who do not
(36:56):
look like us.
For women, what does that looklike?
For people who speak differentlanguages, what does that look
like?
The AI large language modelswas really built off of Western
data sets, so what does thatmean?
That means they may think alittle bit differently than I
would think on a day-to-daybasis, and we got to make sure
that.
If that is happening, we wantto know about it, we want to
(37:18):
make a decision on how we'regoing to improve that, and the
kids who are growing up thatthey have an opportunity to say
because they're really good atit.
That's not right, or this shouldbe done another way, or you
should think about this.
Kids, young people, need to beat the table because as we get
older, we often forget about allthose things that we were
passionate about when we wereyounger and forget about the
questions and the curiosity.
(37:39):
So we need to make sure thosepeople are at the table and the
people we're building these forare at the table, so that we
have a more ethical AI,understanding that bias is
inherently built into how themodels work.
Like you're literally doingweights and things like that, we
understand that.
But it shouldn't be built in away that harms someone, takes
away their liberty, freedom orany of their rights that they
(38:00):
are granted to being in thiscountry, we got to make sure we
protect people.
I don't care if it tells you topick a red dress over a blue
one, but if it takes your kidaway from your home because of
some analytic tool that's in agovernment child welfare office,
that needs to be as close toright as possible if you're
using it to make those type ofdecisions.
So ai.
(38:20):
Ethics is always at the frontof this conversation for me and
it should never go away andwe're never going to get it
fully right.
So we got to keep working on itall the way through until this
thing becomes agi or whatever isgoing to be at the next level
yes, no, I agree with you.
Fonz Mendoza (38:33):
Thank you so much for sharing that and just really
, you know, very passionateabout it.
You know, and you and I arevery in line with you, know your
response, and this is reallyone of the things that I've
definitely been voicing, andoftentimes it seems that our
voices are really drowned out bya lot of the hype and the
excitement that is out therebecause of people that are all
(38:53):
about, hey, let's move fast andbreak things.
But we know that move fast andbreak things doesn't work and
it's okay to slow down, to gofast, but you know it's it's one
of those things too, that wesee it on social media, we see
it on LinkedIn.
I know you and I both interacton LinkedIn and it just seems
like those voices are the onesthat are heard the most, but
then the ones that are, you know, know, just really just asking
(39:14):
you to be more cautious and justbe more ethical about this.
It's like, oh, no, no, no,you're, you're the ones that are
going to cause us to fallbehind on all this race and, uh,
you know that we're movingahead and we need to go do these
things, but again, I, I agreewith you 100.
So thank you so much for beingvery honest, genuine and
authentic with that answer, allright, well, this has been an
(39:34):
amazing, amazing episode andit's definitely filled my bucket
.
I it's amazing, like okay, sothis whole time I'll be honest
with you I've been very likestarstruck, just because and
it's weird, because it's likeI'm listening to your podcast
and I'm a fan of, and now I'minterviewing you as the host,
which is really cool, andbecause, also, the work that
you're doing.
(39:55):
So it's been fantastic and it'sgreat, and thank you for
spending a little bit of yourmorning with me and, of course,
with our audience members, whichI kept repeating.
Please make sure that you govisit AI DigiTales, make sure
you visit AI for Kids, make sureyou subscribe, make sure that
you sign up for the emailnewsletter, check out the books,
check out the resources, andall of that will be linked in in
the show note, or linked in theshow notes, I should say.
(40:17):
And, of course, you'll be ableto follow Amber on LinkedIn as
well and all her socials thatwill be posted to also.
So make sure that you connectwith her.
She's a wonderful resource andI promise you that she will take
anything that is out there andshe'll, you know, make it simple
for you with her kissphilosophy.
I promise All right, well,right, well, amber, let's go
ahead and wrap up with the lastthree questions that I always
(40:39):
send my audience members beforethe show.
So hopefully you're ready.
So here we go.
Question number one in thecurrent state of education.
Why I should start this the wayI normally do is, as we know,
every superhero has a weaknessand for superman, that
kryptonite just weakened him.
It was just like, ah, such apain point.
So I want to ask you, in thecurrent state of, we'll say, ai,
(41:03):
what would you say is yourcurrent AI kryptonite?
Amber Ivey (41:08):
My current kryptonite is the amount of
models and feeling like everytime a new one comes out that I
don't know what to do withmyself and cause it's so many
coming out all the time.
So it's like if you're tryingto then tell everyone you're
helping them AI literacy butthen you don't know or haven't
played with the newest model.
It's like did I mess up?
(41:29):
Am I not where I need to be?
But I had someone actually toldme this week.
They were like you don't needto know all the models, amber,
it's okay.
Like the underlying foundationis what you need to know, and
that's helping me feel a littlebit less like it's my kryptonite
, but for right now it is.
The number of models stressesme out daily.
Fonz Mendoza (41:46):
So I guess it's kind of almost like that fear of
missing out, like just like, ohlike.
Oh my gosh, like I just learnedthis one and now now like here's
this next one, and so on.
But you know what?
That was some great soundadvice that you just shared, or
that they shared with you.
It's like, hey, it's okay,everything kind of like under
the hood, still very similar,just slightly different, but
really it's just.
As long as you focus on sharingthose wonderful skills that
(42:09):
will help students, educatorsand professionals be able to
navigate that space.
I think that, in the long run,is what's going to help them.
So just keep doing what you'redoing, my friend, all right.
Question number two is if youcould have a billboard with
anything on it, what would it beand why?
Amber Ivey (42:25):
I'm cheating.
It would say AI for kids youneed to be literate in this
technology.
The reason I say that isbecause I made my podcast it's's
very simple name, ai for kids,after messing up on the ai
because the system, because thatwas not clear.
But I want people to understandlike ai is something that kids
should know and should learn,and that would be my billboard
(42:45):
simply ai for kids something youshould learn um and make sure
your kids are literate in itlove it.
Fonz Mendoza (42:52):
And don't forget, you got to put your qr code on
there, so if people drive bythey can scan it and it goes
straight to the show and theyget linked and connected with
you you know it started becauseof this question yeah, all right
, here we go.
And the last question, amber,is if you could trade places
with one person for a day, whowould it be and why?
Amber Ivey (43:14):
so this one was a hard question because there's
like a bunch of people that Iwas thinking about.
I'm like, should I changeplaces with someone in AI?
Would I change places withsomeone in government?
Because I have like this weirdintersection and I decided on
it's gonna feel like a kind ofweird answer, I guess maybe, but
I would love to trade placeswith Sal Khan of Khan Academy,
(43:38):
only because everything they'redoing right now even beforehand,
like they had early access toOpenAI for the tutoring which is
now like Conmigo.
I love what he did in like hisstory of like starting with
helping out his cousins.
I believe it was understandmath and breaking it down, and I
love that he takes complicatedtopics and breaks it down the
(43:58):
way that everyone understandsand grew that into a company
that now we all use.
I remember being, when it firstcame out, my mom sending it to
me I think I was in collegesaying, hey, you've heard of
Khan Academy, check it out.
And it's just a guy like upthere with his videos and to see
what he's turned that into isjust so impressive to me, and
just to get into his shoes for asecond to see how he's running
such an amazing company reallyis an inspiration to me.
(44:21):
Other folks would be likelypoliticians or other AI leaders,
but that's who I probably wouldchange places with, because
it's mostly aligned with what Iwould love to do and aspire to
become.
Fonz Mendoza (44:30):
Yeah, and I love it.
I mean, it kind of falls inline with what you said, just
taking something complex andmaking it simple.
But I just want to let you knowthat you are already doing that
, my friend.
Amber Ivey (44:40):
And.
Fonz Mendoza (44:40):
I really do appreciate it because and I only
say that because sometimes, aspodcasters and the work that we
do, sometimes we may not getthat immediate feedback, and
it's every once in a while youget that feedback.
But I just want to let you knowthat your podcast has really
made an impact on me in the waythat you present things Again,
taking those hard concepts,making them easy, and not only
for us as adults, but for thelittles too as well.
(45:03):
So keep doing what you're doing, my friend.
And again, guys, if you haven'tfollowed Amber yet, please make
sure that you do so.
I know I've repeated thatseveral times, but I promise you
this is something that is great.
That's going to be beneficial.
The resources and the knowledgethat you're going to get from
the interviews and, of course,from the website and the
resources, is definitely goingto be wonderful.
So make sure that you followAmber.
(45:24):
And again, guys, thank you somuch as always for all of your
support.
Please make sure that you visitour website at myedtechlife
where you can check out thisamazing episode and the other
300, and I believe it's 15 or 16episodes, one of those, but
make sure that you go check outall the episodes, because I
promise you, guys, you will finda little something for you to
(45:47):
sprinkle onto what you arealready doing.
Great, so please make sure thatyou do that.
If you haven't followed us onall socials, make sure you
follow us at myedtechlife on allsocials and jump over to your
youtube channel.
Make sure that you hit thethumbs up subscribe to our
channel.
We're this this close to athousand subscribers and we'd
appreciate if you were ourthousandth subscriber.
(46:07):
That would be amazing.
And again, as always, thank youto our amazing sponsors, as I
mentioned to you in the verybeginning Book Creator, thank
you, as always, for your support.
Edu8, yellowdig, thank you.
Thank you for making this showpossible and believing in our
mission to bring amazingeducators, professionals,
authors and everybody from thisspace to be able to share more
(46:27):
about AI, share our experiences,so that we can continue to grow
together and just really adaptto this landscape.
So thank you, as always, alwaysfor all of your support.
And until next time, my friends, don't forget, stay techie.
Thank you.
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