👋 Hey Reader!

Here’s what I’ve got for you in today’s issue of WFH Dads:

→ Are your kids using AI?

→ Recommendation of the week - My favorite AI podcast

Let's get into it.

Are your kids using AI?

I recently listening to a podcast sharing some tragic stories of kids and teens who had developed relationships with AI companion bots that led to them taking their own lives.

Really heartbreaking stuff.

My kids are still pretty young but it got me thinking about what level of interaction I want them having with AI now and in the future.

I want my kids to be tech-literate

On one hand, I'm all for teaching kids appropriate use of tech. While my 6 year old daughter goes to a low-tech, classical education school, I don't want her waiting until she's in middle or high school before she starts learning how to use a computer.

So I'll have her occasionally do some learn-to-code games on a Chromebook (that only allows access to that one coding site).

Not to mention, I co-founded a startup several years ago that helped teachers leverage technology in the classroom, often showing them how to teach the students to use the tech.

But I'm wary...

I don't think kids need to be literate in ALL forms of tech.

I plan on keeping my kids off using social media until their mid to late teens. Social media is mostly downside with very little upside (and this is coming from someone who has a full-time job as a social media video specialist at a cybersecurity company!)

Thankfully there's a trend where teenagers are opting to get flip phones and unplugging from social media altogether. Hopefully that continues. Maybe by the time my kids are teens, social media will be seen as a boomer thing.

For a while, I thought 'kids will need to learn how to use AI because it's going to be an expectation of them when they join the workforce' but now I feel that argument may really only apply to students in their final years of high school given the rate at which AI evolves.

3 years ago, the main AI skill to learn was 'prompt engineering.' Now the AI models understand natural language so your prompt isn't as critical; it's all about 'context engineering' now. Who knows what things will look like 3 or 5 or 10 years from now.

Additionally, I worry about the temptation of kids using it to just replace the hard work of thinking. It's like teaching a 5 year old how to use a calculator before she knows how to add and subtract herself. Without kids learning to think and write on their own, they will not develop the sense or judgement to even know if the output of an AI is any good.

I've even dialed back on my own use of AI for writing because I was seeing my own writing abilities begin to atrophy!

Thankfully, similar to Gen Z / Alpha rejecting smart phones, there's a growing anti-AI sentiment among young people. Maybe there's hope that my kids grow up to be at least a little disillusioned with AI, lest they just overly rely on it.

How my kids are interacting with AI

So here's the current level of interaction with AI that my kids have.

Google Home

I updated our Google Home to use Gemini when responding. My 6 year old will sometimes say 'Hey Google...[insert random question]' and it will respond to her delight, but I don't let her continually go back and forth with it. I just say 'OK that's enough for now.'

And I will correct my daughter when she refers to the Google Home as 'her' (since it's a woman's voice) and say "it isn't a person, it's just a computer with a woman's voice, so you can call the Google Home 'it'"

My 3 year old can't articulate 'Hey Google' clearly enough for it to respond yet (HAEY DOOGOOL!) so still got some time there.

I also ensure that the Google Home that's upstairs near their rooms automatically has its mic turn off after 6pm. I don't think my kids are going to get out of bed and just go talk to it, but I'd rather it just be off.

Coloring pages

I will use ChatGPT to generate very specific coloring pages for my kids.

For example, my daughter wanted a coloring page of her and her brother driving a fire truck. So I generated this:

We often discuss why things may look off (like weird artifacts) or why people don't actually look like the people we ask it to include (because it's just guessing what 'Grandpa' looks like). Then she colors it.

Right now, that's about the extent of their interaction with AI.

Thoughts from other dads

A couple weeks ago I asked other dads on this email list and on social media what their thoughts were on this. Here's a few replies:

Not using it

Using it indirectly or with guidance

Using it as inspiration to create something in real life

My daughter told me all about the fairy garden she wanted to have in our backyard. We picked a space, took a photo, imagined it with AI, iterated and had fun.
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Then we went to our local antique/flea market, and were able to gather all the parts needed to tangibly create the space we imagined after seeing a version of it with AI.
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The goal was to expose them to wonder and creativity, but demonstrate they own the real outcome. Our imperfect fairy garden couldn't be any more perfect.
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Here is a picture from right after we built it beginning of the summer.

My favorite reply

This was a text from my dad:

If you haven't yet shared your thoughts on how much your kids are interacting with AI, I'd love to hear them!

Recommendation of the week

​The Artificial Intelligence Show Podcast​

This is one of the few AI podcasts that I listen to on a weekly basis. Paul and Mike break down the latest AI news, tools, and business strategies. Super helpful particularly at the pace that AI is moving, having these guys curate everything that's going on into a 60-90 min episode.

I think they strike a balance of sharing the great ways AI can improve your work and life while also discussing the very real downsides of AI on humanity.

You can see their latest episodes here.​

What about you?

Would love to hear how your kids are interacting with AI if you haven't already shared.

Thanks for reading!

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

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600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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