How Do I Prepare My Child for an AI World?

TLDR:
Teach them to think critically, feel deeply, and be creative; ask them why/how questions, help them form their own ideas, then use AI to fill gaps and polish.

The most dangerous trap we can fall into when using AI is to no longer think. To outsource all our opinions, our beliefs, and even our creativity to AI is the worst possible outcome. We’d cease being ourselves. We’d become robots, extensions of AI without minds of our own. As such, the best outcome is the exact opposite: students who form their own opinions, who form and test and hold their own beliefs, and who create genuinely from the content of their own inner world. If the machines are coldly and precisely all the same, then the most human we can be is most uniquely ourselves.

To be ourselves we have to know who we are, and that requires the ability to think for ourselves. So, we must teach the young ones to think. And to do that, we need to ask them good questions, questions that start with ‘why’ and ‘how’. The better the question, the more growth they can achieve with less effort in less time.

Now, a ‘why’ question is the most important because it establishes cause and effect, it’s the foundation. Why did ‘b’ happen? Because of ‘a’. So ‘a’ causes ‘b’, ‘b’ happens because of ‘a’, that’s how they’re related. This is cause and effect, and it’s the core of critical thinking. The ‘why’ causally links two ideas together, and if we link several ‘why’s together we can create a long chain of causes and effects all the way from ‘a’ to ‘z’. And in fact, such a chain of ‘why’s is actually the way we answer a ‘how’ question.

To answer a ‘how’ question, we have to break down and lay out a mechanism, some end-to-end process by which some result occurs. For example, when a parent comes home to find their chandelier shattered, the first question is “How on earth did that happen?” The kids likely launch into a story about how first this happened, then that happened, and then some other thing happened, and so that’s why it’s not our fault. But their story is a series of causes and effects, one thing lead to another. So, we answer a ‘how’ question by linking ‘why’s together in sequence: ‘a’ led to ‘b’ which led to ‘c’, and here we are.

With this in mind, if we want our students to become stronger critical thinkers, we should ask them more ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. “Well, why do you think X happened?” or “So how do you think Y works then?”. Then give them space to think. If they’re conditioned to wrestle with a question in their mind to find an answer, that’s probably what they’ll continue to do. Just like they’ll unthinkingly type the question into AI if that’s the habit they’re allowed to form because it’s easier. We have to help them form good habits.

We would be wise to ask students more often what they think of this or that, most especially of any phenomenon observed together –the natural occurrence helps it anchor more deeply in the mind. Another useful tool is to flip their question back onto them when they ask before giving them our answer. Compel them to form their own ideas first, make their mind do that work, then help them fill in the blanks. The question enlightens, not an explanation. Ask a good question, then hold space for the child to think for themselves. Teach them to question everything and to consider all possible answers, comparing and weighing each against other. Teach them to ask questions of themselves as well, and then to find the answers on their own. At some point we all have to figure out who we are and what we want, and no one else, certainly not AI, can give us those answers.

Similarly, and in balance with critical thinking, we must also ask students how they feel. Such questions stimulate an awareness in the child of their emotions, which can help them regulate their moods, connect with others more meaningfully, and help them explore themselves. Asking a child how they feel about this or that also compels them to consider how their feelings connect to external events and to their own personal thought processes. Feelings are integral to the human condition – in fact, they’re at the root of essentially anything we choose to do. We strive toward what feels good, and it’s really only our discipline and our clarity of vision that separate us. We do things and we buy things ultimately because they produce a positive feeling within us. They make us feel good.

Feelings are also at the core of art and storytelling, and they’re equally as present during a beautiful gathering of friends as they are during a heartbreak. Our emotions are one of the strongest distinctions that separate human from machine. Curiously, this is why AI music often feels a little weird or unnatural, and AI stories feel a little hollow: they lack authentic human emotion. Technology will improve and AI will get better, but it’ll always be chasing 9’s – 99.9%, 99.99%, but it’ll never feel 100% natural. Only a human truly can. Musical melodies, for instance, can express feelings without a single word spoken. That melody is the encapsulation of an artist’s feeling, presented to the world so that it might find and resonate with others who feel the same. Art expresses feeling and truth, but a machine can’t truly partake in this exchange because it doesn’t experience emotion the way we humans do. AI can create, but real creativity, the expression of something from within us infused with raw emotion, is something we humans do best.

To prepare the youth for an AI world we have to help them stay connected to their humanity. We must ask them wise questions that compel them to think and to feel. We should help students think for themselves, ask good questions of themselves, and use their own mind to find the truth. We should help them explore their feelings and their emotions, understand their moods, and be aware of the feelings of others. All of this ultimately leads to the student figuring out who they are and what they want, then making their dream reality. And toward that end, AI is an undeniably powerful tool.

When the internet appeared, we started using search engines like Google to find facts instead of driving to the library because it was way faster. Using AI to find facts instead of a search engine, to crunch data instead of an Excel sheet, or to compile lists instead of writing by hand is no different. AI is too powerful to be ignored. If we refuse to accept it, we’ll quickly become disadvantaged by those who do. As such, we must help students cultivate healthy relationships with AI, just like we teach them to do with other humans, with food, with cellphones, and with all sorts of other things in this world.

One practical, immediately applicable takeaway is this simple rule: Answer every question ourselves first before we ask AI. Really try to get it without any help or resources, just our own mind, then see what AI says. Compare answers, fill in any gaps. The act of thinking each time strengthens our mind, and the answer we formulate gives us context to better place what AI responds with. Then as a bonus: Copy and paste the same question to a few (3-5) AI’s at the same time. The results can be surprising.

AI is here to stay, so we must learn to manage it and to harness it for all the good it can do. As humans figured out how to craft stone tools, they simultaneously understood how to make stone weapons. A singular knowledge produced both objects, which means the mind wielding the knowledge determines the outcome. AI is a just a tool. One person may wish to use it as a weapon, another for unimaginable good. This means our first objective must be to raise good humans. People adept at thinking and feeling, who know who they are and why they are here.

Then we can teach them how to use powerful tools wisely.