AI, Kids, and the Things We Don’t See Anymore

How can we raise curious, grounded kids in a world transformed by AI?

Some days it feels like my generation has lived in three different worlds.

In the first, the phone was attached to the wall, money came out of a machine that felt like magic, and grown-up life happened where kids could see it, at the kitchen table, on the couch, in the car.

In the second, everything slipped behind screens and passwords. Bills went on auto-pay, signatures turned into clicks, and you could live with someone and still have no idea what they were doing, because it all happened in tabs you never saw.

Now we’re in the third world: AI everywhere, all at once.

I don’t need a chart to know the pace of change has sped up; I can feel it in my nervous system. We’ve gone from “new technology every decade” to “new technology every day.” My whole professional life is in AI, I’m all in, and I’m still deeply uncomfortable with how fast this is moving and what might be getting lost along the way.

What worries me most isn’t just the technology itself. It’s that, once again, our kids don’t really see how it’s used. We’re figuring it out quietly behind screens, while they get raw, unfiltered access on every device.

And then my optimistic side kicks in. If we’re deliberate, if we take the time to show them how to use AI, could it actually bring some of that learning back into view? Could this be a net positive change for our kids (and us)?

When learning happened through observation

When I was a kid, I learned how the world worked by watching the adults around me.

My mom wrote checks at the kitchen table.
My dad took cash out of the ATM (which absolutely blew my mind).
Phone calls happened where the phone was, in the one spot where the cord could stretch, and I could hear everything.

There were bills spread out, forms being filled in, someone grading, reading, arguing with a company on the phone. All of that activity was visible. And because it was visible, it pulled questions out of me:

• How do checks work?

• What’s a bill?

• Where does the money in the ATM actually come from?

• Who are you mad at on the phone? Why?

I didn’t sit down for a “life skills” class. I just absorbed things by being around. So did most of us.

Then everything disappeared into computers

Fast forward a couple of decades, and almost all of that moved onto laptops and phones.

Bills are on auto-pay.
We sign documents with a click.
We send messages instead of having messy, emotional phone calls in the middle of the kitchen.

One day it hit me: my kids can’t see any of this, which makes it harder for them to learn. They don’t see us paying bills, talking to the insurance company, or filling out medical forms. Their view of “how adults do life” is just… Mom or Dad staring at a screen.

So instead of them learning naturally by watching, I started to manufacture learning moments:

• “Come look at this; these are our bills and how we pay them.”

• “Come listen to this call; I’m ordering food. Next time, I want you to do it.”

• “Can you call CVS to check if they have that hair dye before we go?”

It’s not bad. It’s just harder. I have to remember to bring them into things they used to overhear by default.

Technology made many things easier. But it also took a huge amount of everyday learning and tucked it out of sight.

Which brings me back to AI.

Could AI reopen curiosity and critical thinking?

For years I thought of technology mainly as the thing that hid the learning, and I wanted to go back. (If I’m honest, part of me still does.)

But lately I’ve been wondering if AI might do the opposite: open up education and life skills again, just in a different form, and for more kids than ever.

I keep thinking about how different my own education might have been if I’d had a patient tutor sitting at my desk at home, ready for every question I was too embarrassed to ask out loud.

That’s more or less what kids have access to now. They can type:

• “Act as my finance teacher, what does a daily budget actually look like?”

• “Act as my economics teacher and explain the difference between macro and micro like I’m 14.”

• “Act as a college advisor, what is college really like, and how do I know if it’s for me?”

• “Act as my social coach, how do you make friends at a new school when you’re shy?”

For kids who don’t have adults around with the time or experience to walk through these questions, AI can become a curiosity amplifier. They can ask 1,000 “basic” questions without worrying they’re annoying someone, or that they should already know the answer. And, if something sparks their curiosity, they can go deeper in their learning.

Is it a perfect substitute for a wise, present adult? Absolutely not. I worry a lot about our loss of human interaction. But for many kids, this is more access, more explanation, and more context than they’ve ever had before. If we use it with purpose, it could help them explore more of the world than they can currently see.

Using AI with kids, on purpose.

So how do we use this in real life without just handing our kids a screen and hoping for the best? The same way we’ve taught them anything else: training wheels, then a little more freedom, then a little more.

At home, that might look like:

• Start with a shared account.
  Create an AI account you both use. Sit next to them. Ask questions together. Let them do the typing while you’re there to react and steer.

• Teach them how to use it well.
  Show them how to give context and personas, ask follow-ups, and say, “Explain that more simply.” Remind them that AI is a pleaser; it leans toward what sounds good. Their job is to challenge it, be a critic, and check whether the answer makes sense.

• Keep your values in the open.
  When AI suggests something, say out loud: “In our family, we’d handle that this way…” or “That’s one approach; here’s what I think.” You’re not just giving them information; you’re giving them your filter on the world.

• Let them drive (a little) and report back.
  Encourage them to “interview” AI about careers, how something works, mistakes they’re afraid to talk about, books they like, then come tell you what they learned. Ask, “What surprised you? What do you agree or disagree with?”

The point isn’t to outsource mentoring or parenting to a model.

It’s to support their curiosity in a world where fewer and fewer “grown-up things” happen in front of their eyes, and to bring them along into the future we’re building.

Still uncomfortable, but a little more hopeful

I’m still not comfortable with how fast this is moving. I still worry about what we’re losing.

But I can see a path where AI doesn’t just automate tasks or make us more “efficient.” Used deliberately, especially with our kids, it can help rebuild the habit of asking questions, unleash curiosity and make more of life visible again, for everyone.