“Artificial intelligence is reshaping tomorrow’s economy and redefining how we compete, learn and innovate today, These findings underscore the pressing need for expanded AI training and education across the Heartland…
—Ross DeVol, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Heartland Forward, quoted on the Walton Family Foundation website, May 8, 2025.
I will be the first to admit that humor is a funny thing. “Funny” in the sense of, “curious” or “strange”. Ideally, it’s also funny.
I came across another funny thing yesterday. A report on a survey conducted by Heartland Forward, analyzing how Gen Z students are reacting to AI.
Heartland Forward, a project of the Walton Family Foundation, is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, the birthplace of Walmart.
Personally, I’m happy that Walmart was born, and it doesn’t really matter to me that it was born in the Heartland. But I wasn’t clear where, exactly, the Heartland is? Obviously, it includes Bentonville, Arkansas, but beyond that, it was something of a mystery.
I know roughly what people mean when they say, “The Southwest” or “Appalachia” or “New England”. But “the Heartland” wasn’t a term I was familiar with. And why was the Heartland interested in artificial intelligence? AI has always seemed to me like a “West Coast” gimmick being foisted on the rest of us, against our better judgement.
So I did exactly what people do, nowadays. I asked ChatGPT what “the Heartland” means.
In the U.S., states like Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Indiana, and Ohio are often considered part of the Heartland. The Heartland is associated with traditional American values: hard work, patriotism, family, religion, and community.
Politicians often appeal to “Heartland values” to connect with working-class or rural voters.
When someone talks about “the Heartland,” they’re usually referring to the perceived cultural and moral core of the United States, both geographically and symbolically.
Which clarified part of my question. I know where Nebraska is, and I know where Ohio is, so basically, the rural, working-class middle of the U.S.
Geographically and symbolically.
And morally.
The thing is, I don’t normally associate hard work, patriotism, family, religion, and community with “artificial intelligence”. AI seems like the exact opposite of those things.
Hard work, patriotism, family, religion and community are real things. But AI is artificial. As its name implies.
Then along comes the Walton Family Foundation, funding a new study of the young people living in the Heartland, to discover whether they know how to use AI.
From my experience (which is admittedly limited) AI is one of the simplest things in the world to use. You open your AI app and ask, “What is the Heartland?” and within five seconds you know about hard work and patriotism.
On a comparative scale, a pair of chopsticks are much harder to learn to use.
From the Walton Family Foundation website:
Nearly half (47%) of middle and high school students in America’s Heartland report using AI for homework and learning outside of school. Yet only about 1 in 4 (26%) say their school has a clear AI policy permitting its use. This highlights a significant disconnect between students’ eagerness to adopt emerging technologies and the readiness of educational institutions to support that adoption.
So then, a couple more facts about the Heartland. Student there are eager, and educational institutions are not. Might that be a problem?
Heartland Forward posted a video on YouTube explaining why they are hosting technology gatherings in the Heartland. Basically, the people in the video seem to feel AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread — which was invented in the Heartland, if I remember my history. If young people in the Heartland can be taught how to use AI as well as the students on the West Coast and New England and the Southwest — and in China — then the Heartland can be reshaped from a “perceived cultural and moral core” into something more artificial, but also more profitable.
Here’s that 3-minute video, called “Harnessing AI in the Heartland”:
Does that video belong in a humor column? Maybe not. But I thought it was funny.
We all have different ideas about what’s funny, and what’s not funny.
To find out what AI thinks is funny, I asked three AI apps to weigh in.
“Write a short, funny story about students misusing AI in the American Heartland.”
ChatGPT wrote about high school students misusing ChatGPT. The story began:
It all started when Mr. Dobbins, the high school agriculture teacher in Cornpatch, Kansas, announced the annual “Future Farmers of the Heartland” essay contest. The prize? A $100 gift card to Tractor Supply and a suspiciously dusty trophy shaped like a cow…
Grok had to think about this assignment for nearly 30 seconds, which is a rather unusual wait time (in my limited experience) and then wrote about high school students misusing Grok. The story began:
In a small Nebraska town, where cornfields stretched wider than Wi-Fi signals, the high school’s computer lab buzzed with mischief. The assignment was simple: write a 500-word essay on “Why the Heartland Beats Strong…”
Claude.ai gave me the following beginning sentence:
In the sleepy town of Cornwell Junction, where the tallest buildings were grain silos and the most exciting Friday night activity was the high school football game, technology arrived like a tornado — unexpected and leaving confusion in its wake.
I noticed that all of these stories featured a reference to “corn” in the first sentence. Apparently, AI thinks “the Heartland” consists of corn farmers. But hard-working, patriotic corn farmers.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.