I'm sure we've all heard the news of Scratch implementing a generative AI buddy for Scratch. This may seem useful and I agree that it's a cool concept. But this is a website for children to learn, not AI to help them. We have the Help with Scripts forum for a reason, and even backpacking scripts exists.

But not just that, If children rely too heavily on AI for generating ideas, they may not develop the skills to independently brainstorm and problem-solve. The immediate solutions offered by AI can short-circuit the essential learning process of trial and error, which is key to cultivating creativity and resilience, which is what Scratch's main goal is.. fueling imagination.

Furthermore, Creativity often stems from emotional experiences, imagination, and personal expression. AI-generated content will lack this emotional depth, potentially removing the personal connection that's integral to a child's creative growth. And we don't want that, do we?

But basically my point is that by adding AI, you're destroying the creative vision of Scratch that solely depends on a child's imagination and the trial and error factor that makes projects good.

Sasha's Updated Views

After reading some of what you guys said, I decided to add a few more things. This will be updated overtime.

1.) I do use AI pretty much almost everyday, but AI on Scratch seems very out of place and takes away from the one key charm of Scratch, that being human made-projects, human moderation, human users, etc. An AI, even in the place of just “helping” users is highly out of place.

2.) Some users said that you can just use ChatGPT if you really need help, but I disagree. As I stated in my original post, we have human resources on Scratch to help you out such as the Help with Scripts forum and tutorials. There is no need for AI to spill over into places that were always predominantly human-made.

3.) AI is expensive, and notice how Scratch Membership conveniently rolled around when the Scratch Foundation announced that they were going to be making an AI for Scratch? Just sayin'

4.) This isn't a view on AI related but it's just something I need to address. Please refrain from using AI in this post because you're going to start a flame war and that's just unnecessary and defeats the purpose of this topic. And if someone does use AI, please do not ridicule them for it, you just look like a jerk.

5.) Some AI training models have been under fire for being trained on either copyrighted material or material that it's creator didn't consent to using. How will we know if the people developing this AI for Scratch aren't using usermade projects without their consent? It's unethical regardless of whose the actual owner.

6.) AI can tend to be incorrect or hallucinate. And some AI's, like ChatGPT, really only tell you what you want to hear. And then some AI's like Gemini are really boring and have no personality and tend to just give up and redirect you to Google searches, which sucks.

7.) Kids might not understand AI boundaries because they can’t always tell the difference between facts, bots making stuff up, real people giving help, and so on. They trust the computer because “it must be right.” The AI could accidentally teach bad coding habits, misinformation, or encourage dependency. None of that matches Scratch’s mission.

8.) Scratch is supposed to be a safe sandbox, not a tech experiment. Kids come here to learn coding basics, not be beta testers for a foundation’s new AI project. Scratch Team using Scratch kids as guinea pigs for a trendy AI rollout feels morally shaky. If they wanna play with AI, cool — but don’t use children as the testing ground.

9.) Even if the Scratch Team swears “AI won’t be behind a paywall,” let’s be fr. Services cost money. AI costs SERIOUS money. Membership suddenly appearing at the SAME time isn’t a coincidence. Eventually, features get split: “Basic users get slow AI”, “Members get advanced AI help”, “Members get more AI tokens”, “Members get better project analysis”, “Members get priority moderation”… It creates a two-class system on a platform designed for kids learning to code.

According to scratch, the AI will assist. The scratcher will still make the project, but the ai will help them fix bugs, brainstorm, and break down things you don't understand.

Bitebite12 wrote:

According to scratch, the AI will assist. The scratcher will still make the project, but the ai will help them fix bugs, brainstorm, and break down things you don't understand.

And that's the problem the OP stated. What about trial and error, creativity, and the good feeling of learning on your own?

Please Watch This project if you want to learn more if “AI” is coming to Scratch

but TLDR:

Generative AI is not coming to Scratch, not to mention AI image generator is rejected. But what is coming to Scratch is Creative Learning Assistant, and it is Optional

Personally, I think that AI, in whatever form it takes in programming, does more harm than good, because in my opinion, every user who encounters a problem will ask the assistant for help rather than thinking for themselves.

The purpose of this AI buddy, as far as I know, is solely to help Scratchers get ideas on what types of projects to make, and to help Scratchers figure out basic ways to code. Keep this in mind as you read the rest of my post.

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:

I'm sure we've all heard the news of Scratch implementing a generative AI buddy for Scratch. This may seem useful and I agree that it's a cool concept. But this is a website for children to learn, not AI to help them. We have the Help with Scripts forum for a reason, and even backpacking scripts exists.

Be aware that backpacking scripts does not help Scratchers figure out how to code something. You sort of already need to know what to look for in order to backpack a script.

As for the Help with Scripts forum, that's a reasonable point, but I'm willing to believe that the AI buddy is for very basic coding ideas, while the Help with Scripts forum can be used for more specific and complicated coding help. Consider for example the recent “debug” feature that was added. It helps with basic debugging ideas, but a Scratcher can always use the Help with Scripts forum for more detailed help.

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:

But not just that, If children rely too heavily on AI for generating ideas, they may not develop the skills to independently brainstorm and problem-solve.

On the AI generating project ideas: I don't find this any more harmful than the many project idea generators we see posted on Scratch (which I already don't find harmful to begin with). People get “writer's block” from time to time, and it's fine to seek ideas from different sources.

On the AI problem-solving for you: I guess it's unclear as to how helpful the AI buddy will be (how detailed is it? can it answer anything?), but again I'm willing to believe that it only offers very basic help. @mingo-gag's link above shows that help may be somewhat limited; for example, the AI suggests using a broadcast block but doesn't explain what it means or how to use it. It does link to another project for more information, however. So in that sense the Scratcher still has to go through some effort and trial-and-error to figure out how the block can be used.

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:

The immediate solutions offered by AI can short-circuit the essential learning process of trial and error, which is key to cultivating creativity and resilience, which is what Scratch's main goal is.. fueling imagination.

I think the Scratch Team's position is that AI (when used correctly) can help enhance (not replace) imagination/creativity. Again, folks can get ideas by looking at other projects already, so if an AI buddy says “Try making a platformer where you are a mouse trying to escape a cat,” I think that would be about as useful as looking at a similar project and getting inspiration from there.

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:

Furthermore, Creativity often stems from emotional experiences, imagination, and personal expression. AI-generated content will lack this emotional depth, potentially removing the personal connection that's integral to a child's creative growth. And we don't want that, do we?

I think the AI buddy will be unable to make the entire project itself. That's where a Scratcher's imagination/expression comes in. Indeed, if you and I both separately get the idea “Try making a platformer where you are a mouse trying to escape a cat,” then the projects that you and I make out of it will probably be wildly different from each other, even though they stemmed from the same basic idea.

cambegonefr wrote:

And that's the problem the OP stated. What about trial and error, creativity, and the good feeling of learning on your own?

I sort of answered this above, but something else worth saying is that learning on your own can (sometimes) only go so far. Too much trial-and-error can lead someone to give up, and therefore never get that good feeling of learning on your own. It would be nice to have many ways to help Scratchers on this trial-and-error journey. An AI buddy can help with that.

Last time I checked, they're limiting it to the CLA.

My topic about this was closed but it has really good evidence as to why we shouldn't have an AI helper. And besides, it's a huge energy drain on scratch servers.

That is to say, support.

I support this for a different reason, there exist resources on Scratch to help with bugs. Let me list them now:

1. The Requests Forum
2. The Questions About Scratch Forum
3. Contact A Friend
4. Help With Scripts Forum

I think these should be more well known rather then adding like another solution to help with bugs

WHAT?!?!?!??! I never heard about this. I agree with everyone else the help with scripts and project ideas forums should be more well known I don’t like this ai. And if people really need project ideas they can just use ChatGPT

That was a while ago, and they rejected the update shortly after.

VerySmartDummy wrote:

That was a while ago, and they rejected the update shortly after.

Source?

I support the idea not to add AI.
I picked up Scratch when I was way younger. Scratch is VERY accessible, and I strongly doubt an AI assistant would be necessary. What makes you better at coding is not reading over complex projects. It's making mistakes and fixing them by yourself. An AI assistant fixing them for you directly goes against this. Although sure, one could argue that you could use it sparingly and only when you're really stuck, I feel as if most people would simply use it every single time they have even the smallest issue rather than thinking for themselves

also i don't remember seeing this update anywhere what

How much will be automated by AI?

Lets say I ask it to help me with a complex number-raised-to-complex number calculator. What will it give?

The basic formulas that need to be combined? The complete formula that gives a+bi? The bundle of Operators Blocks that gives me the formula I want?

This will change a lot.

Also, let's not forget how bad AI is for the world. High energy usage, environmental racism, carbon emissions, data centres, water usage, etc…
Scratch supposedly cares about the planet as they have celebrated Earth Day anually by making studios which include statements such as:

Earth Day is an annual global celebration of our planet and a reminder that we all have the power to protect it. Every year on April 22, people in over 190 countries come together to take action for the Earth.
(source)

If the Scratch Team thinks that humans have the power to protect the planet then they should be doing their bit to contribute. And that should involve not using a tool that damages the environment in various ways.
If they can't remove AI fully from future plans, the Scratch Team should at least in some way prove that in some way they are able to use AI without damaging the enviroment.

8xa wrote:

-snip-

Hold up. What do you mean by “environmental racism”? And why are data centers bad?

suswhopper123 wrote:

8xa wrote:

-snip-

Hold up. What do you mean by “environmental racism”? And why are data centers bad?

Environmental racism is a type of institutional racism where marginalised groups suffer the worst of pollution and other environmental harm. This occurs in many ways and is caused by many different factors such as the fossil fuel industry and industrial agriculture. It's also now caused by AI as many data centres are placed near where BIPOC communities reside. An example would be Grok data centres in Memphis which release toxic fumes that harm residents of Boxtown, a majority black neighbourhood.
As I mentioned before, AI data centres often release pollutants due to their methods of powering AI and also using significant amounts of water for cooling.

VerySmartDummy wrote:

That was a while ago, and they rejected the update shortly after.

What? I do not care for the 60 second rule

cambegonefr wrote:

VerySmartDummy wrote:

That was a while ago, and they rejected the update shortly after.

What? I do not care for the 60 second rule

I think they're referring to AI image generation which was considered for generating pictures for sprites but was rejected.
Currently other types of AI and the supposedly planned AI assistant aren't rejected