Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello.
Dr. Jessica Peck talks about 52 habits for healthy families on American Family Radio
: And welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day on my favorite day of the week. Friends, we have made it to another Friday, which my kids call Fry. Yay. And I say yay to all the Fridays because it's Friday. Just has a different kind of energy. Whether you work or not, I'm a nurse. I really didn't know the meaning of Fridays. But still, Fridays just always feel a little more fun. And this is the last Friday in January. Can you even believe it? Here we are, and we are at the end of our campaign for preborn raising money for 5,000 ultrasounds. And we are almost there. I mean, I'm telling you, I think we're within about 30 of that 5,000 goal. So there is a possibility maybe it is you in this hour that would put us over our goal. I encourage you to call and give a gift of $28 that provides one woman seeking an abortion a free ultrasound. Giving a mom an opportunity to choose life. You can call 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396. $140 provides five free ultrasound. And maybe you could do that or whatever the Lord puts on your heart. But what God has put on my heart today is talking with us again, just coming together for our healthy habits. We are talking about 52 habits for healthy families. And we're just getting started. Even though we are at the end of January, we are just getting set in to spiritual disciplines and rhythms. I'm telling you, these are the best backbone of the family of family health. This is the DNA of family health is just these simple routines. And a lot of times people ask me, they want a hack, a communication skill and I have all kinds of tips and tricks up my sleeves. But without that foundation of spiritual discipline, the rest of it is really not that helpful. Honestly. That has been my experience and the things that I'm sharing with you are science supported, are, research backed and they are there to help your family. And it's not about overnight transformation. We're playing for the long game. And so we've just started talking in January about praying, about reading and memorizing scripture, about going to church. And we've had several guests on this month that have echoed those sentiments and given you tools and equipped you to do just that. And we are ending up, our spiritual disciplines today, this last Friday of January, with listening to Christian music.
We are walking through these healthy habits that really shape the tone of our homes
Yeah, this is something I really love to talk about. And I know many of you have got feelings about this, but let me start with Scripture. Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing, one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. And that is the message here today. We are walking through these healthy habits that really shape the tone of our homes. It's not through perfection, it's through just showing up and just being obedient. And God will bless that. And it's not about being, fear based, like being afraid, oh, what happens if I don't do this? Or being rule driven, like, oh, I have satisfaction in checking off that list, which I am that kind of person. And it's not, it's not really based on anything but formation for your family. And here's something intriguing I want you to think about. Every home, every single home has a soundtrack. And every home soundtrack is really unique. And the question isn't whether it's that that soundtrack is shaping your family, it's how that soundtrack is shaping your family. And there's always a soundtrack playing whether you choose it or not. In every home there is some sort of background hum. It might be music, it might be the TV going 24 7. It might be podcasts, it might be news, it might be silence. It might be intentional sounds that point hearts upward. Maybe your home is filled with chaos and laughter and maybe toddlers crying or fighting. Whatever the case may be, I want you to think back to your own childhood home and think about the sounds that come back to your memory. I can think about my grandparents home. I can still tell you the sound of the grandfather clock. I can tell you the sound of my pawpaw puffing, puffing on his pipe. I can tell you the sound of the door closing to, to a cabinet. Sounds there. The TV was always on with my granny. Tell him, turn the TV off, we have visitors. But Even homes that have silence, that silence itself is not neutral. What fills that quiet will shape your soul. And, and that soundtrack, if we don't choose it, if we're not intentional about curating, what do we want the sounds of our home to be? Then culture gladly steps in and fills in that silence. That silence. Now, neuroscience, this is fascinating, shows that music is very uniquely t to memory formation. There is a special kind of biological tie between the sounds that we hear, especially the sounds that we hear growing up, and the way that we process our memories, the way that we regulate our emotions, and even the way that we develop our identity. That is why, hearing a single song can transport you immediately to a time and place, maybe long ago. It brings up emotions within you. Maybe those are good, maybe those are tough. But that single song can instantly transport you somewhere. And that's why, maybe you don't remember what you had for breakfast, but you can sing every word to the lyrics of a song that you learned in your teenage years. And music also becomes attached uniquely to different seasons of our life, whether that's a season of joy. This is a song that I played a lot when I was feeling joyful or. Or a song that got me through a sad time, or a song that got me through a breakup, got me through a pla. A place where I was feeling fearful. So our kids are not going to remember every lecture that we give, every word that we speak, as much as they will remember the sounds and the soundtracks of our home. What is playing during bedtime? What is playing? What are. What is dad listening to when you ride in the car with him? What is mom listening to? What is going to be on her radio? I know my kids will tell me, oh, my goodness, you listen to the actual radio, mom, nobody does that anymore. People stream stuff. I do listen to the radio still. But people will remember too, what filled the house when conflict happens. Is it slamming doors? Is it loud music? Is it silence? Or what do they hear during celebration? What are the happy things that. What. What tells you immediately when you walk in that your home has a happy soundtracks? And those soundtracks reveal what your home values. You can tell what is celebrated, what is normalized, what is feared, what is avoided. And so, for example, think about this. If you have the news going 24 7, it's likely that your home soundtrack maybe have an undercurrent of anxiety or a feeling of urgency. If you have constant entertainment, maybe that's an underlying soundtrack of needing distraction from something, needing escape from something. If your home has constant Silence, maybe that's an underlying soundtrack of emotional distance or relational conflict. If you have intentional worship playing, that is going to be a cue that your heart is postured toward God and that you are seeking God's blessing, his favor, his presence. Now, this is not about judgment to say, oh, listen to the soundtrack of your home. And is your soundtrack good or bad? And what should you do about it? Our soundtracks preach sermons really more powerfully than we do in lecturing and speaking. And a soundtrack can set the emotional temperature of our home. Just like the thermost that is regulating the physical temperature, music is regulating that emotional client, climate. Because if you're feeling anger, music can make that worse, right? You can have like, angry cleaning. Has anybody ever played a soundtrack and then had angry cleaning to get that angst out? Or maybe you have soothing music, you want that anger to calm down. Ah, music can fuel anxiety or it can quiet it. It can reinforce hopelessness. Like you're just sitting there all by myself, you know, maybe you know that song or you're having met messages of hope that are playing on that soundtrack. Music can invite gratitude or it can amplify complaint. Because we tend to listen to music that tells us, oh, yeah, I have this trouble too. It's not fair. And we try often to correct behavior without already realizing that the soundtrack has set us up for failure. And for those of us with kids in our house, we can't discipline children effectively when we have an atmosphere of constant emotional noise and constant chaos of the messages that are in the soundtrack of our home. So there's a difference between noise and nourishment.
When we have mindless streaming, often that's like emotional fast food
Not all sound is helpful. Noise is filling space. But nourishment is forming and shaping our hearts. And when we have mindless streaming, often that's like emotional fast food. We just let it play. We just tell our I, I, I call her, she who shall not be named. So I don't set off everybody's, you know, who like to start playing music. But if you just say play this kind of music, they're just going to pick and just pick for you. And that can be good, but it also can be a missed opportunity. But if you're listening to biblically grounded music, music that reinforces the messages of scripture, the identity that God speaks over you, that is going to feed your soul, that is going to anchor you in truth, and that is going to give you good language to when you're feeling faithful or faithless, when you're feeling sad or you're feeling joyful, when you're feeling hopeful or hopeless. And so it doesn't mean that all the music is really slow. It's somber, it can be, it could be celebratory, it can be joyful. But we are, we need to listen to what we are playing in our home. Because when we're playing music, it does teach theology very subtly and sometimes not so subtly. And it can shape our beliefs and shape our emotions. And that's why, why scripture emphasizes singing. That's why choirs were used in battle. That's how powerful they were. That's how powerful God presents music as. And again, we know that from Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And your home soundtrack doesn't just stay in your house. It goes in your car ride, it goes in the school hallway, it goes on the sports field. It goes into offices where you're waiting for an appointment. It goes into your bedroom at night when you can't sleep or when you're visiting in the hospital. We have headphones, we have Air, AirPods, we have earbuds, we have portable music like never before. And in moments of fear, people aren't reaching for abstract theology. You don't usually think, okay, I'm feeling afraid, I'm feeling anxious, let me listen to a sermon. Most people don't do that. They reach for a song that's going to comfort them. And we need to think about what we are doing. Are we being intentional in setting the soundtrack of our home? And, and that call is not control everything ever streamed in your house or micromanage every sound that comes in your house. It's an invitation just to notice what's playing in your home, in your heart, and to choose what is playing in your home and your heart in that soundtrack of your home. And so today I'm inviting you to intentionally listen to Bible based music, whatever genre that may be. Maybe that's bluegrass gospel, maybe that's choir music. Maybe that's worship music. Maybe that's a country, flair. Whatever it is, think about the message of the music. Is it giving you messages that reinforce scripture? Now, again, this is not about demonizing secular music or guilt tripping or rigid rules. It's not about, you know, just shaming. It's about intentionally choosing. And we can acknowledge the goodness of many secular songs. There are some that are uplifting. If we hear lean on me when I'm not strong, I'll be your friend, there's nothing wrong with that. Or maybe some of you, like here comes the sun, there Are whatever it is. There may be songs that you like, or what a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. There are songs that are inherently uplifting. But it is a difference when we see that music itself is a gift from God and we have the opportunity to shape how we're being intentional about listening to that music. And it's about making sure you're being intentional. Intentional and listening to biblical truths and using music as a formation tool for your family. Now, I have two concerns about mindless streaming or letting the algorithm pick for you. One of those is that lyrics do shape your subconscious. And I would encourage you to take a look at your most played playlist. What are you playing the most? And look at the messages of those songs. What are they? Messages about identity, about worth, anger, success? Are they messages that are uplifting, that are edifying? Or are they messages that may be damaging in some way? Are they hopeful or despairing? Are they self focused? Or are they others focused? And we know that repetition strengthens those neural pathways. We become more attached to a message and a song. And those lyrics bypass those critical filters that we have. And not thinking about what we're singing, it just settles into our long term memory. And when we sing it, it becomes what we believe because it feels like it's true. The second concern I have is streaming to the algorithm. And algorithm is really designed for engagement, to keep you engaged with the algorithm, not formed by the algorithm, although that is what happens. And so I want to emphasize music as an underrated atmosphere changer. It has the power to shift your mood, regulate your emotions, de escalate conflict, and create peace or tension. When we come back, I'll give you some practical tips on how you can incorporate music thoughtfully into your home. And I'll, give you some home front headlines, what you should know and what you could do about it. See you on the other side of this break.
More than 7 million American women suffer severe emotional distress after an abortion
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Friend in Jesus by CAIN: Who always keeps me safe and I found a healer Yes, I did who knows my everything and this is my story of redeeming love I have come to know him well oh, I have found a friend in Jesus He Is everything to me and I have found a friend in Jesus yes, he is my, everything oh, I found a friend in Jesus he is everything to me I have found friend Jesus.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Friend in Jesus by Cain. And thank God that we have a friend in Jesus. I thank God for that every day, especially on this Friday, as my kids will say. And I'm thankful for you for contributing to our preborn campaign. If you would like to donate an ultrasound, friends, we are so close to our 5,000 goal. I really think we might go over in this hour. You can call in at 877-616-2396. Just $28 provides one ultrasound. If you've been meaning to call in but haven't yet, do it now. 877-616-2396.
This week we talk about the power of choosing the soundtrack of your home
And on this Friday, we are talking about this week's healthy habit, rounding up the month of January, where we have talked about basic spiritual disciplines, about read praying is first reading and memorizing scripture and going to church. And this week we are talking about the power of choosing the soundtrack of your home, of playing Christian music. It is not about the evils of secular music. Listen, I'm a Texas girl. There are some country songs that I really enjoy, much to the chagrin of my kids. I will sing them very loudly in car karaoke. But it's about being intentional and choosing the soundtrack of your home and playing things that are edifying to your family, that are reinforcing the messages of scripture and that are being intentional about cultivating the, the mood and the temperament and the tone of your home. Now, here's some things that you can think about, whether it's practical placement of Christian music or maybe it is a Christian show that you're listening to but morning routines, worship music can really set the tone. While everybody's eating breakfast, getting ready to go to for school, especially if you've got kids in the house and things are chaotic and it set the tone before the day's noise will enter. A car ride is a prime discipleship space. What are your kids gonna remember you singing, you listening to? And those songs become your shared family language. Every family has songs that they love together as a family and that reminds them of a specific time, a specific stage. What are you choosing those songs to be? It might be after school or after work. Decompression. What are you intentionally playing when you come in the house and when there is chaos is to amp up the joy of that moment or is it to be quiet and to really calm everybody down? Maybe there's an evening wind down. Maybe when it is time to go to bed, you start playing some hymns or some scripture based lullabies. Maybe when there's moments of tension, you can have that background worship music playing. And another great habit, and one that I have adopted, as my own, is making themed playlists, being intentional about making a themed playlist for seasons and struggles. So maybe there's a season you're going through that feels particularly anxious or fearful. You can make a playlist about God's nearness, his sovereignty, his peace, the victory he gives you over fear. If you're having trouble with identity, if you have a teen who is struggling with identity, make a playlist with songs about rooted and being known and chosen and loved by God. If you're feeling alone, make a playlist that helps you remember that you are never alone, that God is with you everywhere that you go. If you're grieving, you can make a playlist for biblical lamentside. songs that allow sorrow, but not sorrow without hope. We have sorrow with hope. Maybe there's just a season of joy and you have upbeat praise that just invites movement and gratitude. Maybe there are scripture songs. This is a great way for kids to memorize scripture. I know I listen to, a lot actually. I. Maybe some of you will remember this. Maybe most of you won't. Maybe I'm dating myself, but I used to listen to GT and the Halo Express. Does anybody know that those were scripture based songs and those songs are still there and I'll find myself singing through the song to remember the reference. You don't need a new sermon. If you're walking through a tough time necessarily to give to your family, you don't need to preach at them. Maybe you Just need a new soundtrack. So make that work for you. And all of these spiritual disciplines, they can be encompassed in music, which is really exciting. So maybe you play a worship song as your prayer time. Maybe you play scripture songs and you're memorizing scripture while you're doing dishes or folding the laundry. Maybe you're playing hymns during your bedtime routine. Maybe you're memorizing scripture is your prayer and your song. And that is a beautiful thing to do because music can be used as discipleship. And that's just what I'm encouraging you to think in your home today. How are you using music as a discipleship tool in your own life and in your family's life? So we've talked about it. Prayer, reading and memorizing scripture, going to church and music and reminding us from Colossians 3:16. And. And it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Don't you want that? I want that. I want the word of Christ to dwell in me richly. Teaching and admonish one another and all wisdom. These are things that we need for today. And layered into that right there is singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts. And Newsflash Preview. We'll be getting to gratitude really soon. Now. I particularly like hymns. I think I. I'm a fan of hymns. I know many of you out there are because hymns historically taught doctrine to congregations who couldn't read. And that repetition, singing the verse, and then singing the chorus over and over again, that reinforces truth, which is really a beautiful thing. And there are so many testimonies of songs. I know there are certain songs that will come on that I will just. It will take me back to a moment of God being faithful. And one of those times that I remember that I've shared before is when my husband was having an emergency surgery and I walked into the surgeon's office and what was playing on the intercom there but was your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. And every time I hear that song, I'm reminded of God meeting me there. So I am inviting you to curate one playlist this week, if that's your thing. So think intentionally about what you're going to play, think about the soundtrack of your home, and think about how you can use it as a discipleship tool. That is really encouraging because as we're listening to music, we are also listening to so many voices. There are so many talking heads. I'm here sitting as one of those, but we're looking for information. And when we're listening to information that's coming to us in the world today, it can be deeply distressing, especially as we see the headlines.
You need to be following stories about the developments of artificial intelligence
So that brings me to, ah, this week's session of Homefront Headline Lines, where I am telling you what the stories that I am, following in the news. What is the story? What does it mean for you and what can you do about it? And there are some stories that I'm going to tell you today that are really troubling my heart. One of the things that I do to ease that trouble is to play music with messages of hope, knowing that God is there. So one story that I've been following continually, parents everywhere, grandparents need to know, even just people in general. You need to be following stories about the developments of artificial intelligence, especially deep fakes. Now I've talked about this before, but to catch you up, just to make sure we're on the same page, deep fakes are pictures that are images or videos that are digitally altered so it looks like someone, but it's really not that person. It looks like someone's talking, but they're really not talking. Their image, their video is being manipulated to look like something else. Now the start it as something funny because you might see a coach or a political figure who's saying something just wildly out of pocket and you laugh at it. But then it's not so funny when people are using that technology to remove clothing from people and exploit, especially children. That's what we're seeing. And we are seeing AI with open source code having this easily accessible. It's very easy to do. You can download apps and make this happen. And I worry about kids who are going to do this without even thinking because they've been conditioned to think that deep fakes are funny and it's not real, it's not a real person, so it really doesn't hurt someone. Right now in the news this week, what I've been following is the XAI tool on the Platter X, formerly Twitter. It's called Grok, G R O K. And it has been reported to have been found generating sexualized images of women and children in response to prompts. And, and the research, according to this article, estimates that there's a new image, an explicit image of a child generated every 41 seconds. That is. And we see the demand for explicit images and abuse, image based abuse is what that is being called. We see that absolutely soaring. And they're advocates who say, well, this is great because it's not Real people. But these images drive desire, desire drives demand. And then that's how we see abuse happening in real life.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Life.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It absolutely will not help in my estimation. And we see other big tech platforms that are hosting apps that are called nudifying apps, which remove clothes from people and digitally undress real people. And platforms are responding, but the technology exists. And there is a lot of legal immunity for these companies in this age of experimentation and not a lot that you can do about it. There's a wide variation in state laws and there's a lot of conversation going on on Capitol Hill what to do. And it's not just a tech issue. This is really a child protection crisis. Children are at risk of being exploit, exploited even without ever being photographed. That is really, really concerning. And consent is completely removed. A child's likeness can be weaponized. And that is concerning because we are seeing the collision of unchecked power and, and really technology that is not grounded by conscience, by spiritual formation, by, by biblical value. So what can you do about it? Well, make sure that you know that it exists. Because what I see happening is a lot of times parents or families are blindsided by this technology. They see an image, they see a video of themselves, especially for children. It's very, very confusing because it looks like them, it sounds like them, but it's not them. They know it's not them, but it feels like it's them and everyone thinks it's them. This can be pretty traumatizing. So talk to your kids about deep fakes and where the line is on that, what's funny and what's not funny, what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. Because as we have tech companies that are experimenting with this technology, kids are experimenting too. And it is not a safe place for them to experiment. So you really need to talk openly with your kids about image based abuse. That is the term that is being used. And it's using an image to bully someone, to embarrass someone, to abuse someone in some way. And there is an organization, called Enough is Enough, which has a lot of great resources specifically for talking about to your kids about this. So talk to them. Even why it's fake harm is still real harm. And that is important to do. And we and you may want to follow the news because there's a lot of legislation, conversations that are going about this. Contact your legislator if you want to know what are they doing about this? What is on their radar? What laws do they support to protect children and to hold platforms accountable? When children are abused on their platform or hold app stores responsible when children are abused. And we need to teach our kids that their value is that they are made in the image of God and digital destruction cannot destroy their soul. That is really important.
We see new technology unleashed because it has significant marketing power
Now in the line of that story number two comes from OpenAI having new parental control. So this is the pattern that we're always going to see is that we see new technology unleashed because it has really significant marketing power. And so this technology is unleashed. We want to advance society. Yes, there are some benefits of technology, there is money making potential, but invariably what happens is there is a reckless element and there is harm that occurs in the wake of that. And so in response to that, many times the tech companies will say, oh well look, we're going to put this safety feature in and make sure. And many times those safety features really don't generate meaningful protection. I think that's really true. That's really something to know. So, but, but in that line, OpenAI, we cannot use these, by the way, we cannot use these safety features as parents as a get to give us a false sense of security. It's just like when I'm, I'm counseling families about keeping their house safe. You remember when you have toddlers and you're looking at all the plug covers and everything, not one single thing is going to keep them safe. It is about multiple layers of protection that you will have. You want a fence around your pool and you want an alarm on the door and you want a doorknob cover. That's the same approach that you should take in these digital environments.
OpenAI has released some parental controls for teen ChatGPT accounts
But in that, in that vein, OpenAI has released some new parental controls for teen ChatGPT accounts. And I was just talking to a dad yesterday who said that the normal conversation now in their house is when somebody doesn't know something, they say, well, let's ask chat. Like chat is a person. And that means chatgpt. They did roll out some parental safety tools for teens ages 13 to 18. So parents with teen consent, whatever that means, can limit sensitive content, disable voice or image generation. Honestly, if your teen is using chat dbt, that's something I would go on and do. Do not allow them to have voice or image generation. Those are deep fakes what we were just talking about. There's too much temptation, too much blurriness there too, too much that is gray. And so I would tell them not to do that with any super unless they have supervision. You can also set some quiet hours or receive alerts for serious self harm risks. Now we're seeing a lot of court cases where parents are taking AI companies to court, saying that the, the AI companion that is associated with the platform convinced their child, befriended their child essentially and supported them into behaviors that end in self harm or even loss of life, which is so very tragic. So the fact that a parental control says, I'm going to tell you, if you're a child says this, that is problematic in and of itself. But, but here's the thing, even with these parental controls, parents cannot see the full conversation. So that has a lot of meanings there. It's, it's a cultural shift with platforms saying, okay, we need some protection, but tech protections cannot replace good parenting. When we come back, I'll tell you what you can do about it and some other stories and the news that you should know about. We'll be right back on this Friday after this break.
: The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, ain't no doubt about you.
The Goodness by TobyMac featuring Blessing Offor: They may come. they may go. You keep showing up, so do ain't no doubt about it.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. That is the Goodness by TobyMac featuring Blessing Offor. And we do have a lot of goodness to be grateful for and I'm grateful for this Friday with you joining joining us 52 habits for healthy families. We have talked m this month about praying, reading your Bible, going to church. And today we talked about the power of cultivating your music list, listening to Christian music and using it as a discipleship tool. I am sharing with you some home front headlines, some headlines that impact families. It's what do you need to know and how does it affecting your family and what can you do about it. And many of these headlines that I'm following have to do with AI with artificial intelligence. This is not going away. This is something that I will be following all year and you should be following it too. And you can follow along on Fridays and I'll share what I have learned. So so far we've talked about deep fakes, talking to your kids about that, being aware that that is there and Knowing about the new parental controls for Teen Chat gbt. But there's always a story about some new parental controls and those do not outsource parental involvement. Not going to change that oversight that you're giving in person, that relational oversight, looking at them eye to eye, talking heart to heart and walking them through those things. Don't use those AI protection tools as fail proof because they are certainly, certainly not. And so we can use the tools that we have, but we, they don't outsource discernment. And so we know that AI is a tool. It is not a person person and not a companion. And believe it or not, we have to say that because we see people getting engaged or marrying AI boyfriends and girlfriends, they wear virtual real reality goggles so that it gives them a projected image and walk around the house like they're living with somebody who does not exist. This is really, really concerning. AI is a supplement. It is not a guide and it should not outsource human wisdom. So we gotta keep these conversations relational, not surveillance based, not lecture based. We want to emphasize wisdom over restriction. Not don't do this. But okay, how can you exercise wisdom when you are engaging on an AI platform that is really important to do.
90% of US developers are using AI daily, according to a headline
Now AI is doing all kinds of things that I am learning about every single day. And one of the things I learned about this week was something called getting clod pilled. Maybe you've heard about this, maybe you haven't, but this is like Claude, like a man's name. CL A U D E Claude pilled. This is AI doing entire projects for humans. So before they would use you would use AI to help you in a certain task. Now it's taking a goal and executing it completely independently. Like you can say, AI build me a website and then it just builds the whole website. You're talking about very complex projects that can be completed. And 90% of US developers, according to this particular headline, are using AI daily. And about 40% of code is AI generated. Now I'm of the generation of before computers and I was raised in the Houston area and happened to know many engineers and NASA and especially those who were part of Apollo 13. And I can remember them telling us hand calculating all of these complex equations or using computers that were as big as a room. And now we have power in the palm of our hands that is more powerful than the science that was used then. That is really sobering. It's, it has potential, but it also has some things that we should be cautious about. And what is really fascinating Is that there are some social scientists who are looking at the user reaction when they realize AI can handle everything. It gives you a, real feel good. It gives you a rush. It's like an adrenaline rush realizing that I'm so powerful. I have this. I can just, like a genie in a bottle that can do this. Now, what does this mean for families? Why do I care about this? Well, I think this may help children grow up to believe that they don't have to try hard. There's no benefit in any sort of struggle. And I don't need to master things because AI will do it for me. I'm worried about that. I'm also worried about skills like perseverance. Try, try again. Skills like patience, waiting for something, working on a project that takes a long time and feeling the satisfaction of that work, or even problem solving may just atrophy. Because I'm already seeing kids and families outsource their problems to AI. We used to outsource them to Internet searching and Google. And even research would show about 85% of people when they have a problem, the first thing they go to is not their Bible, not their pastor, not their spouse, not their mother, not anything except Google to say, what should I do about this person problem? And now AI is going to amplify that. And so there's a risk of confusing efficiency with wisdom. And AI cannot replace human oversight because we were made in the image of God. So what can we do about it? Well, we need to teach our kids the difference between having technology assist you with a task or replace you in a task. And what's the difference between productivity, which we want to do, but also purpose, and we want to make sure that we're preserving spaces to help our kids learn how to do hard work, how to work for something, how to wait for something, how to fail at something and try again. That is really important. And that's something that I'm watching with AI in that line.
Story number four is AI clones attending meetings for you. Can you believe this?
Story number four is AI clones attending meetings for you. Okay. Can you believe this? Actually, there are some new tools, tools that can create AI versions of you that will sit in the meeting for you. So imagine you open up your video conferencing and you just deploy your AI bot. And I'm feeling like, did anybody grow up watching the Jetsons? I feel like we are living that out here. And there is a version of you with your face, with your voice, and really, kind of scarily with your knowledge, with your perspective. You program that AI, companion to say, you are this person in this role sit in this meeting and the clone can answer questions, the clone can interact autonomously and then it gives you a report later. Well maybe you're on the beach, I don't know. Is this really smart or is this really scary? I think it's a little bit of both. But here's what this means for families. This is important. Presence is being redefined. What it means to be present is different. And children may grow up unsure as some someone actually present or not. Do I have an AI teacher or a real human as a teacher? And is AI even here or not? AI is so integrated into our society. I was reading an account from a professor who was offered on a video conferencing platform. Was offered, hey, would you like an AI assistant to take notes? And they thought sure, I'm innovative. Yeah, do that. Well now all of a sudden the AI is in the video conferencing. They don't know if it's listening, if it's not where it's reporting back. It's like a little digital spy, these things. We're in a world experimentation and we need to make sure that we're talking with our families about what does it mean to be present and what is authenticity? What does that even mean? Gen Z has grown up as a generation craving authenticity. But now AI is starting to redefine what that actually is. And work may consume less time, but what does that mean exactly? Where are the ethical boundaries for that? Well, what can we do about it? What? One thing we can do is to model embodied presence at home. What do I mean by that? I mean embodied like embody, be present, body, mind and spirit. Be physically present with your family. Be emotionally present with your family. Read the room and match the moment. And if the moment is tough, use your leadership to bring that up. If you come home and the mood is, is a little quiet, maybe you can bring some joy. And that is really important. Act as a thermostat and regulate the temperature of your home through your presence instead of just responding to it. And teach children that hey, being present is an act of service. People are not interchangeable with AI or robots. And those face to face family rhythms that are tech free, I think there's those are going to be more and more important. And maybe if some of our work is outsourced, we'll have more time for things like puzzles and board games and nature walks and all of those beautiful things. Another story I'm following about AI is that humans are starting to sound like AI now. This is really th this really made me think. So in this case, Researchers analyzed about 740,000 hours of speech. And what they have found. Listen carefully. Since ChatGPT was released, least they. They listened to humans talk. This was real humans, okay? Real humans talked for 740,000 hours. They took all of those recordings and put it into machine learning. And they saw that since ChatGPT, human vocabulary actually shifted to sound like chat GBT, like the words that chat GBT loves. So some of those words would be dead. Delve. Everybody all of a sudden is saying delve or meticulous or swift. AI is not just shaping what is being written, but what is being spoken. Now this matters because language shapes thought. And this raises all kinds of ethical questions about how much are we letting ChatGPT or AI shape how we think, think what we believe, how we speak. We are really being culturally remolded by AI and we're letting it happen. And there is. We shouldn't do that without thinking really seriously about that because children may lose their personal voice. We all love unique characters. You love, everybody's got a quirky uncle who talks differently and you love that about them. But we're all starting to kind of talk the same. They may lose that relational warmth that's there. And speech risks becoming optimized instead of really being human. So what can we do about it? Well, we can encourage storytelling, reading aloud, having conversation. The lost art of conversation is something that is really needed because so much conversation is happening online. It's happening, happening through text messages, through social media platforms, through chatting. We need to talk face to face and heart to heart because our voice is part of the image bearing person that God gave us. God gave us. He made our voice unique. He made our speech unique. He made our physical appearance unique. Our voice is part of that. Now if you're feeling, starting to feel kind of panicky like I did did, there is some good news in all of this news. One thing that is starting to emerge in Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which is the generation that the oldest Gen Alpha is about 15 right now. And we already have a generation being born after them yet to be named. But we have Gen Z, which is young adults at older teenagers, young adults and Gen Alpha children and younger teenagers. For them, being offline is starting to be a status symbol. And I cheer for this. I think this is really great because logging off is now seen as a luxury, something to strive for, and they want to just disappear. And it. So the term that's being used to describe this is Something called digital minimalism. Now we saw the millennials who were, who were forerunners of the minimalistic house trend, right? They're the gray, the beige. Everything is white and nude neutral. And now we're starting to see that change. But digital minimalism is becoming a thing now that matters because constant connectivity, they're rejecting that and saying, we don't want that. I don't want work to be able to get a hold of me 24 7. I don't want text messages to come to me at 2am I don't want to feel obligated to check my social media in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. It is exhausting. I don't want that constant connectivity. And we see that we. They're rejecting that. Worth is related to your availability. And that's just not the truth. And what you can do about it is refl. Reframe offline as being healthy. I know my kids are the best at telling me, mom, hang up and hang out. Just hang up and hang out. Because I know. I think sometimes older generations are worse on their phones than younger generations. Generations younger generations. It's very normal for them to say, I don't have that social media platform. I deleted that app. Nope, I'm taking a sabbatical. I'm not on that right now. I'm not going to look at that. I'm concentrating on the people in our lives. And I think that is really a beautiful thing because one of the things that we do see in research is that depression is associated with AI use. And the more AI, the more depressed, the more anxious that it may make you feel. But when we're seeing coping again, I keep talking about this. I, We need to make sure that our kids don't see AI as a person and a person that's more available than the real people in our life and emotionally outsource those things. So listen, technology is shaping our world. We. We cannot. We cannot stop that. But we can influence the way that it is shaping us, shaping our children, shaping our families, families, shaping our hearts and our homes. And we can take charge of the spiritual formation. We can disciple our families and our kids. And as we go on this year, one thing that is really on my heart is the concept of digital discipleship, of taking that discipleship journey. Those things that we have, the spiritual disciplines cultivating the fruits of the spirit. And how do we translate that into our online worlds and our online lives? The question isn't, you know, should we? But how should we? Because it's not going away and, but, we have the power God has gifted us for such a time as this to be a positive influence on our family. Hey, listen, if you missed out on our habits journey, just go back and listen to the Friday shows in January and you will be all caught up. And I would love to hear from you in December to hear how your family, home, your heart has been shaped by this healthy habits journey. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing this weekend, I pray that you're warm and that you're safe. And I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And I will see you right back here on Monday. And it'll be February. Can you believe it? I'll see you then.
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Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
