Raising the next generation: Will you make AI a friend or a foe in childcare?
It is easy to see that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is redefining everything around us. Was the beer last night at the pub brewed by AI? Was that slightly unfinished portrait you saw the work of an AI algorithm? Did AI drive you to the office this morning? Is the government you elected the result of an AI hack? If AI is used everywhere, not always with the desired results, would you trust it to raise your children?
There are many ways to look at that question. First, why would anyone want to hand their kids to an AI? We have children because of a natural biological instinct or the need for love and companionship. We have children for the satisfaction of raising a child or finding our own purpose through children; the list is long, but you get the idea.
In most instances, handing over childcare to an AI would defeat the core purpose of having a child. The real purpose of using AI is not to replace a mother, father, or nanny but to enhance childcare. As everyone in the technology space is fond of saying, AI will one day do everything, but humans will always remain in the loop. Because when humans are part of the equation, the outcomes are better.
I began thinking about this when my niece, Diva Dhar, a new mother living in the UK and working for the Gates Foundation, asked, “What about AI and childcare? Where are we going with this?”
It occurred to me that we already use AI in various care situations. For example, chatbots offer support and resources for mental wellness. Medical devices monitor us, letting remote teams assess and manage our health in real time. AI-driven devices monitor pet behavior, health, and activity levels, providing insights and recommendations for pet owners. Surely, AI can manage our children?
AI is already being used in childcare. If you have visited a reasonably large toy store recently, your attention would have been drawn to the growing number of toys, from companies like Fisher-Price to Lego, that have a hint of AI in them to enhance interactions with children. Apps like Kinedu and Super Teacher use AI to offer personalized development activities for kids (parents get to track milestones and celebrate). I am sure some apps help children with language development so that we can raise two-year-old polyglots speaking Kannada, English, Mandarin, and Xhosa. There will be scores of AI-driven platforms like Khan Academy for Kids and DoodleMaths teaching toddlers how to use metric units by the time they are four. Figure’s Helix AI will accompany them to kindergarten by the time they are six — perhaps even provide children with the kind of attention and companionship that busy parents no longer have the time for.
It is fascinating — and unsettling — to explore the idea of AI as an intrinsic part of childcare. What kind of people will they grow up to be? How will it change the role of parenting, which is an art, and an instinctual science forged over centuries?
What comes to mind immediately is that AI will not only use vast knowledge banks but also ensure it learns faster and better from non-verbal cues to adjust to a child’s needs. Even parents often miss the early signs of conditions such as autism or Fragile X, which AI could be trained to pick up (using biometrics, genetic traits, observation, etc.) and flag. The AI could then adjust education programs to the child’s learning style and pace, provide immersive learning experiences, and deliver measurable improvement.
What about the downsides? Children brought up by AI may not experience the complete gamut of human emotions. Reduced face-to-face interactions with real people will hinder the development of empathy and social skills, leaving them feeling isolated.
So here we are AI will help us teach our children all the right things at the right time and in the right manner and help them acquire heightened cognitive skills but leave them disconnected from society.
How will AI allow children to have their own experiences? Will AI-parenting be geared only to show excellent academic skills? This is a significant problem statement, which scores of sociologists, educators, occupational therapists, child psychologists, and pediatricians will already be trying to solve.
The more interesting and less obvious idea to speculate about is, “How will AI change parenting?” I am not surprised to see an explosion of parenting co-pilots such as YoYa AI that are filling the gap in parenting expertise by leveraging AI. Do you have a late-night question about colic support? Can you not fathom your child’s sleep patterns? Does your baby need an avatar that acts as a grandparent? Leave it to the co-pilot while you spend time bonding with the baby.
Now comes the mind-bending exercise. Try blending AI’s role in childcare with its role in supporting parenting and its role in the science of pediatrics. What picture of tomorrow’s childhood do you see? AI will provide us with the tools to teach, monitor, and measure a child’s progress; parents will be happier knowing they are getting real-time alerts and actionable health information. If I were to ask the head of automation and AI in my organization, “Describe the childhood you just saw,” the response I may get is, “Hey, that looks like a properly curated and optimized childhood. Let us see what we can tweak to get the perfectly engineered childhood. Give me a couple of days.”
I love technology; it is all I have done my entire life. But the prospect of an AI-engineered childhood is an appalling idea. Or am I just being too old-fashioned?
