How to Prepare Your Children for a World Run by Artificial Intelligence
Growing up, my father and I always talked about writing a story together. We wanted to call it "The Day Nobody Went to the Theme Park." The idea was simple: the weather is so perfect that everyone assumes the park will be overcrowded, so they all decide to stay home. But my father decides to take a chance anyway. When we arrive, the park is completely empty. We have all the rides, games, and treats to ourselves because no one else was brave enough to show up.
I loved that concept, but we never got around to writing it. Life got busy, I grew up, and the project was forgotten. Decades later, during a family dinner with my own three children, the memory suddenly returned. I shared the idea with my oldest child, who wanted to hear the whole story. We opened a simple artificial intelligence chatbot, typed in the basic plot, and asked it to write the story in the style of a famous rhyming children's poet. Within seconds, we had a complete story. We read it out loud and laughed together.
A Surprising Creative Partner
The story the computer generated was not without its flaws. It had a few awkward sentences and some odd word choices. However, sitting on the couch with my daughter, adjusting the prompts, and watching the technology build on our ideas was an incredible experience. We were collaborating with a digital partner to finish a project that had been stuck in my head for thirty years.
For fifteen years, I have studied how technology affects jobs and society. But raising three young children—ages eight, five, and two—has made this research feel much more personal. Their future is going to look completely different from my past.
My wife realized this during a long, crowded road trip to visit family. Keeping three kids calm in a slow-moving car is a major challenge. We were relieved to find an educational history podcast that the whole family loved. It featured two children talking about fascinating historical events in short, fifteen-minute episodes.
As we listened, we wondered about the young hosts. How did they get the job? How did they manage school? When I looked up the show's website, we were shocked to find out that the children did not exist. The entire podcast was created using artificial intelligence voices. None of us had noticed. It was a strange feeling to realize we had connected with voices that were not human. While the technology was impressive, it was also alarming for my wife, who makes audio documentaries for a living. A project that would normally take a team of skilled humans several days to produce was now being made instantly by a computer.
The Trap of "Future-Proof" Skills
In my lectures and meetings with business leaders, teachers, and government officials, one question comes up more than any other: What should we teach our children to prepare them for the future?
Right now, adults are struggling for answers. Teachers feel that traditional lessons no longer work. Parents worry about what their kids are actually learning when computers can answer any question. Employers are starting to doubt whether school grades and test scores truly show what a young person can do.
Many people want to respond by banning these new tools, but trying to block them is a mistake. This technology is the environment our children will grow up in. If we prepare them only for the world we lived in, we are letting them down. Instead of accusing students of cheating when they use these tools, we should ask how we can update our schools to challenge them more deeply.
We also need to look past our fears to see the amazing possibilities. If we use this technology wisely, our children might solve incredibly difficult problems that used to require years of specialized training.
Our old way of preparing kids for the workforce was to teach them "future-proof" skills. But this strategy no longer works. For example, about a decade ago, government leaders in Europe declared that every school child should learn how to write computer code. They believed this would give children the ultimate skill for the modern world. Today, however, advanced computer programs are incredibly good at writing code. In fact, a major technology company recently shared that 90% of the code for their new software assistant was written by their own AI. The skills that were supposed to protect these students were automated before they even finished school.
We cannot predict which specific skills will remain safe from technology. We only know two things about the future:
- Technology will become much more powerful than it is today.
- We do not know exactly how it will change our daily lives.
Returning to the Basics
The first step in preparing our children is to focus on fundamental skills. For over a decade, reading and math scores have been falling worldwide. This is a major problem. No matter what advanced skills become valuable in the future, they will always build on a strong foundation of literacy and math.
Furthermore, computer programs are not perfect. They make simple errors and sometimes invent facts with total confidence. We need to use these tools carefully, keeping our own basic skills sharp so we can spot when the computer is wrong. Focusing on reading, writing, and basic math is a safe strategy that we will never regret.
We can also use these new tools to make learning more exciting. For example:
- When my eight-year-old struggled to memorize multiplication tables, we used a computer program to design custom math games featuring her favorite themes like unicorns and rainbows.
- When my five-year-old got tired of his standard school reading books, we used technology to write custom stories about his favorite topics, like warships and sports stars, tailored exactly to his reading level.
- A digital expert and his daughter used technology to map out the events of a classic vampire novel on an interactive map from the late 1800s, helping her understand the book's geography.
The "Teach Both, Test Both" Strategy
We must teach the next generation how to use these powerful tools. However, we also need to make sure they do not lose their own abilities. Why should a student read a book or solve a math problem if a computer can do it instantly? The answer to this challenge comes from a lesson in educational history.
In the late 1970s, people worried that school math skills were declining. At the same time, electronic calculators were becoming common. A prominent math professor was asked to study the issue. His final report, published in the early 1980s, suggested a simple but brilliant solution: embrace the calculator, but do not abandon basic skills.
He recommended dividing math education into two parts. Students spent some time learning how to use calculators to solve complex problems, and the rest of the time learning how to do math entirely by hand. Crucially, they were tested on both methods. Today, this is how math is taught all over the world.
We should apply this same "teach both, test both" system to modern technology. Every school subject should be split:
- In one part, students learn how to work alongside computer tools to complete advanced projects.
- In the other part, they must work entirely on their own, using only their minds.
- Teachers must test students on both methods to ensure they develop both technical skills and personal knowledge.
Active Screens and Personal Tutors
We should not confuse these new learning tools with social media. While social media can often distract children and pull them away from the real world, interactive technology can actually help them learn. The debate should not just be about how much time children spend looking at screens, but what they are actually doing on those screens.
One of the greatest benefits of this technology is personalized tutoring. Research shows that students who receive one-on-one help perform much better than those in traditional classrooms. Unfortunately, hiring human tutors is too expensive for most families. Now, computer programs can act as high-quality personal tutors for a fraction of the cost, adapting lessons to each student's specific needs.
This technology has an incredible range. I have used it to explain the history of human evolution to my five-year-old at bedtime, and to help university students solve highly complex math problems. These systems never get tired, never lose patience, and are always ready to explain a concept one more time.
Instead of trying to prepare children for specific jobs that might not exist in ten years, we should teach them how to solve difficult problems. By focusing on strong basic skills and learning how to collaborate with new technology, our children will be ready for whatever the future holds.