Raising AI Kids: Issue 3

They're Watching You — So Show Them Something Worth Copying

February 2026 · For parents who want their kids to thrive in the AI era

The Speed Problem

Here's the thing about AI that messes with people's heads: it's not just fast — it's accelerating.

Every three months or so, a new model leapfrogs the last one. Not by a little. By a lot. What blew our minds in January is table stakes by April. The AI you're using right now? This is the slowest it will ever be.

Read that again. This is the slowest AI will ever be.

That's not hype — it's just the math. And the acceleration is nonstop. There is no plateau coming. There is no "let me catch my breath" moment on the horizon. The parents who wait for things to "settle down" before figuring out AI? They'll be waiting forever. Your child will wait too — for a little while. Then their natural curiosity will lead them to explore, and it will quickly take them places you aren't able to help.

Kids Learn by Watching (Not by Listening)

Every parent knows this in their gut: your kids don't do what you say. They do what you do.

If you come home and complain about AI — "it's going to take everyone's jobs," "it's scary," "I don't get it" — that's what they absorb. Fear. Avoidance. Helplessness.

But if they see you using AI? Experimenting with it? Getting it wrong, laughing about it, trying again? That's a completely different message:

"This is new. I'm figuring it out. You can too."

You don't have to be an expert. You just have to be curious in front of your kids. That's the whole lesson.

"You're not going to lose your job to an AI, but you're going to lose your job to someone who uses AI." — Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, May 2025

You've probably heard this line. This is what hasn't left my head for the last six months — and why this blog exists. I want my kids to be the ones who excel in this new era of AI. Yours too. But nothing in school is going to prepare them for this, because most people don't see it coming.

The team behind Solve Everything (solveeverything.org) puts it this way: the prestige is shifting from the "Hero" who solves one problem to the "Harness Builder" who creates systems that solve classes of problems. The lone genius is giving way to the person who knows how to aim the machine.

What does that look like at work?

None of these people became "AI engineers." They just brought AI into what they already do.

And that's the question worth asking yourself — not "will AI replace me?" but:

"How can I bring AI to my workplace?"

If your kid sees you asking that question out loud — and actually trying answers — you've just taught them the most valuable career lesson of the decade.

What Can You Create?

Here's where it gets fun.

As Solve Everything describes it, "automation commoditizes means, but it does not select ends." Translation: AI can build almost anything now. The scarce thing isn't building — it's deciding what's worth building.

They call this the "Explorer of Purpose" — the person who figures out what to aim at, not how to execute. And that role? It's deeply, irreducibly human.

So try this with your kids:

In the past six months I've built an app to track my car maintenance, an online bank to teach our kids digital financial skills and track their money, a retirement drawdown simulator, a business plan for an Etsy side hustle, and this blog. Well, an AI built the blog — but I built the AI. It's been fun — but more importantly, my kids have seen it all happen. They know that AI can do things, not just make cat pictures.

The kids who grow up creating with AI — not just consuming what AI creates — will have an edge that no standardized test measures.

The Acceleration Mindset

Back to the speed thing. Three months ago, the best AI models couldn't reliably do what today's mid-tier models handle casually. Three months from now, today's cutting edge will feel quaint.

This isn't a wave you ride once. It's a conveyor belt that keeps speeding up.

The good news? You don't have to keep up with every model release, every benchmark, every breathless tech announcement. You just need to stay in motion:

  1. Use AI at least once a day. Anything. Ask it a question. Have it help draft an email. Let it plan dinner. The habit matters more than the task.
  2. Talk about it at the table. "I used AI today to ___. It was [amazing/terrible/hilarious]." Normalize it like you'd normalize any tool.
  3. Let your kids see you struggle with it. When the AI gives you garbage output, don't hide it. Say "well, that didn't work — let me try asking differently." That's the real skill: iteration, not perfection.
  4. Revisit tools every few months. The thing that disappointed you in November might blow your mind in March. The acceleration is real.

This Week's Challenge

Pick one thing you do at work — anything, even something small — and try doing it with AI. Not instead of you. With you.

Then tell your kids about it at dinner. What worked. What didn't. What surprised you.

That's it. That's the whole assignment.

Because the most powerful thing you can teach your kids about AI isn't any fact or framework. It's this:

"I'm not afraid of this. And neither should you be."

What We're Watching

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P.S. This is the slowest AI will ever be. That thought should excite you, not scare you. Let's make sure our kids feel the same way.

← Issue 2: Teaching Kids to Talk to AI Safely and Smartly