How to Raise ‘AI-Native’ Kids
Article excerpt
Parents are integrating AI tools into childhood in novel ways, from teaching programming through conversational chatbots on weekend mornings to deploying AI as round-the-clock family counselors. Evan Gardner profiles early adopters who view artificial intelligence not as a threat to childhood but as a skill kids must master to thrive. These families treat AI literacy as fundamental, much like reading or math once were, embedding the technology into homework, creative play, and even emotional support. The bet: kids who grow up fluent in AI will have decisive advantages in an increasingly automated world.
Jason Scharf, 44, isn’t your typical 21st-century parent. In an age of iPad babies, he’s “dropped the hammer” on social media, banning TikTok and YouTube entirely; he says Roblox, which lets kids make online games, is likely next to go. Instead, he insists on raising his three kids, who are 7, 10, and 12, in a way that equips them for the real world.
So when his eldest turned 9, he took him right to the range to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow.
But his son ran into a problem. Despite hours of after-school lessons in their neighborhood of Austin, Texas, and ample tutoring from his father, he could never get a handle on the complicated vocabulary of the shooting range. Until one day, around 2023, Scharf finally tried a technique that the loincloth-clad archers of old never would’ve dreamed of.
“I literally just threw it into Chat and said: Can you explain ‘The range is hot’ to a 9-year-old?” said Scharf, who’s a biotech professional. “It worked like a charm. All of a sudden, he got it.” They moved onto the next phrase he’d had trouble with.
Soon, Scharf’s son knew all about the terminology he needed to understand, plus the mechanics of a long bow, and what separates it from a recurve. Now, three years later, artificial intelligence has taken over his family’s life, and nothing feels impossible.
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