【推荐1】Wang Ling, a middle school girl, felt angry with her parents after getting a boy’s phone call. “A classmate called me to discuss homework. We talked for just a few minutes before my parents got mad,” said the girl. “They asked whether I liked the boy. I’m sad I didn’t, but they wouldn’t believe me.”   

Wang’s trouble is not strange at all because puppy love becomes a big headache for both parents and schools. They worry that puppy love will be bad for their study. Her school makes it a rule not to allow any talk or any physical contact between one boy and one girl alone.   

Many students say they understand why parents and teachers are so nervous about puppy love. But some think they are going too far. “We have our own thoughts and we know what to do with it.” said Wang Ling.   

Another girl, Jiang Ting, liked making friends with boys. “Boys and girls can learn from each other,” she said. “My mother asks me to study hard. However, she never stops me from making friends with boys.” Once Jiang Ting told her mother she might fall in love with a boy. Her mother let Jiang make her own decision. Soon Jiang found that she didn’t like him any more because the boy was not as good as what she had thought before. And she did worse and worse in her subjects because she spent much on it. At last she understood the worry from school and most parents about puppy love.

【推荐2】If I could give today’s young people three wishes, they would be: More hugs. More time outside in nature. More belief in their own power to change the world. While most people understand the importance of the first two wishes, the third one leaves some folks wondering why young people’s belief in their own power is so essential.

Let’s start with the idea that all of us--especially young people--need heroes. We need them to be our guides on the difficult trail(足迹)we call life and to show us just how far we can go. And we need heroes today more than ever. Our modern society is terribly confused about the difference between a celebrity and a hero. And the difference: is vital. A celebrity is all about fame(名望)--temporary, superficial fame, usually for qualities that are easy to see: a pretty face, a great dance move. A hero, by contrast, is about character--qualities under the surface that aren’t visible until they take action.

Heroes are all around us. They truly hold our world together, through their unselfish devotion to helping others, teaching children, and protecting the environment. They don’t want fame, or glory; they just want to help. In so many ways, these unsung heroes pilot the boat in which all of us sail.

Yet, young people hear a lot more about celebrities than about heroes in the media. The hidden message they get from all this is that their self-worth comes from what they buy--which shoes, which cell phone--not who they are down inside. What gets lost in this? Young people’s sense of their own potential for heroic qualities--their own power to make a positive difference in the world. Truth is, there is a potential hero, a future difference maker, in every young person. Each of them, from whatever background, is a positive force who can do something. All it takes for that to be true is belief.

How do we help young people believe in their own power? The best way is simply to share examples, of other young people who have made a difference.

Ryan, age 11, has worked tirelessly to raise money to provide clean drinking water to African villages. When he first heard about the plight(困苦)of African children who died from impure water, Ryan was only six years old. In the next five years, he raised over $500,000--enough to build over 70 water wells.

Barbara, age 17, grew up on a farm in Texas. When she realized that local farmers were pouring their used motor oil into rivers, causing pollution, she organized the creation of a recycling center for crude(未加提炼的)oil. Her project has grown to include18 recycling centers in Texas.

The list could continue. These are but a few examples of young people who have discovered that they can build on their own energy to do something great.

【推荐3】Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech’s online Master of Science in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to fade. Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy (改进) his situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson, which is based on the IBM Watson platform.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn’t too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students’ questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.

The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.