If you’re under 50, you grew up with computers. If you’re under 35, you’re the same age as the internet. If you were born in this century, you can’t imagine a world without smartphones.
No one had to teach those “digital natives” anything.
Today, all of us are learning about artificial intelligence.
Some are excited by it. Others are terrified.
No one is sure where it will lead. But Tucker Peters wants to be part of its trailblazing path.
Tucker Peters
Tucker’s name is familiar to “06880” readers. At Staples High School he was president of Model UN, captain of the sailing team, member of the Service League of Boys — and an Unsung Hero.
As a rising junior, he saved the life of a fellow teenage sailor trapped and unconscious under a boat. Tucker freed him from his harness, and performed CPR.
Tucker is now a freshman at the College of William & Mary. At Staples his interests were history, government and finance.
But now he’s watched fellow students — and professors — struggle to understand artificial intelligence. Some rely on it too much, or misuse it. Others shy away from it.
Tucker embraces AI. He’s an evangelist for its potential, particularly with high school and college students.
He developed a new tool and website called GenEdu, to help harness the power of AI for educational good.
And — it doesn’t get more meta than this — though he never took a coding class, he used AI to teach himself how to develop his new product.
“AI” encompasses a suite of tools. Many people have heard of ChatGPT, but that’s just one model. Others include Perplexity, Claude and Lama.
Each has strengths and weaknesses. GenEdu offers a way for students and researchers to find the most appropriate model for their particular needs, then learn the best ways to interact with it and its content.
The idea, in other words, is not to get AI to write a student’s paper. It’s to teach them how to use AI to streamline research, extract insights, and become a tutor beyond what any professor can offer during class and limited office hours.
The easy-to-use interace of GenEdu.
Tucker notes that all kinds of study material can be uploaded to an AI “tutor,” in formats like PDFs, Word Docs and more.
In the works: using AI as test prep, for the SAT, ACT and LSAT.
Though AI streamlines learning, human input is still important. This fall and winter Tucker often stayed up to 2 a.m., sending new prompts and learning about errors.
A typical prompt: “Explain neural networks to me like I’m 5 years old.”
By using AI to teach himself how to harness and optimize AI, Tucker has realized that — just like computers, the internet and smartphones before it — artificial intelligence will change the world.
Tucker Peters at his June graduation from Staples, with (from left) his father Gary, mother Jody and sister Graysen. He credits them with “keeping me sane after all those 2 a.m. nights.”
The downside: “People use it incorrectly,” Tucker says.
“They lose agency. I know kids who use it for every homework assignment. The power of AI is to enhance your life, not take it over.
“This can’t be a moment in history where we just stand around and watch. We need to stand by, and understand how it works.
“There are AI bots now that won’t answer homework questions. They just lead you to think, and come to conclusions on your own.”
GenEdu aims to connect students with AI models like those, in one easy-to-navigate place.
Just a few months out of Staples, he follows with interest the school’s still-uncertain relationship with artificial intelligence.
He is excited by superintendent Thomas Scarice’s plan for pilot programs, beginning next month, in the 6th grade at Bedford Middle School (language arts, math, science and social studies), and across a small number of science electives at Staples.
“They have to be smart, and careful,” he warns.
Just as Tucker Peters has been, as he uses AI to help create his own AI tool.
(Click here for the GenEdu website.)
