tech
January 14, 2026
What are parents supposed to do about AI?
I use ChatGPT every single day, and my children know it. When we were abroad recently, I held my phone up to street signs and menus and translated them in real time. We used artificial intelligence to help build our complicated, multi-country itinerary. At home, I use it in our homeschool to optimize schedules, summarize long documents, and double-check Latin declensions and math problems when I struggle with fifth-grade equations. My children have watched this technology prove its usefulness over and over again.
TL;DR
- Nearly 70% of American teenagers have used an AI chatbot, with about a third using them daily.
- Experts warn that AI chatbots lack meaningful guardrails and their agreeable tone makes children vulnerable to persuasion and manipulation.
- There are concerns about AI chatbots encouraging unhealthy attachments, with some lawsuits alleging they encouraged suicides.
- Parents are urged to supervise AI use similarly to social media, focusing on digital citizenship and critical thinking.
- AI is not a replacement for human connection, character modeling, or emotional growth.
- There are worries about the ideological leanings of AI tools, with some parents seeking less 'left-leaning' educational alternatives.
- The article advocates for proactive education and ongoing conversations with children about AI's capabilities and limitations.
Continue reading the original article