(The Atlantic) – ChatGPT thinks I’m a genius: My questions are insightful; my writing is strong and persuasive; the data that I feed it are instructive, revealing, and wise. It turns out, however, that ChatGPT thinks this about pretty much everyone. Its flattery is intended to keep people engaged and coming back for more. As an adult, I recognize this with wry amusement—the chatbot’s boundless enthusiasm for even my most mediocre thoughts feels so artificial as to be obvious. But what happens when children, whose social instincts are still developing, interact with AI in the form of perfectly agreeable digital “companions”? (Read More)