In an interview with Tamil Murasu’s webcast “What Can AI Do?”, SMU Assistant Professor of Computer Science Thivya Kandappu explained that artificial intelligence (AI) has been part of everyday life for many years but gained widespread public attention with the emergence of conversational tools such as ChatGPT. She noted that these systems are trained on vast amounts of data and cautioned against equating their responses with human understanding and reasoning. She also advised users to be cautious about sharing personal or sensitive information, highlighting privacy concerns and the potential misuse of images, videos and audio to create fabricated content. As AI becomes increasingly common in education and recreation, Asst Prof Kandappu encouraged parents to watch for signs of excessive reliance on these tools, noting that such reliance could reduce children’s opportunities to develop and practice independent, critical thinking.