 How to Raise ‘AI-Native’ Kids They’re vibe coding with the kids on Saturday mornings and using a bot as a 24-7 family therapist. Meet the parents who have seen the future and want their kids to master it.
Just as the kids of Gen Z were expected to be “digital natives” if they wanted to get ahead, these parents think kids of the 2020s should be “AI-native” if they want to succeed in life. (Illustration by The Free Press, images via Getty)
Jason Scharf, 44, isn’t your typical 21st-century parent. In an age of iPad babies, he’s “dropped the hammer” on social media, banning TikTok and YouTube entirely; he says Roblox, which lets kids make online games, is likely next to go. Instead, he insists on raising his three kids—who are 7, 10, and 12—in a way that equips them for the real world. So when his eldest turned 9, he took him right to the range to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow. But his son ran into a problem. Despite hours of after-school lessons in their neighborhood of Austin, Texas, and ample tutoring from his father, he could never get a handle on the complicated vocabulary of the shooting range. Until one day, around 2023, Scharf finally tried a technique that the loincloth-clad archers of old never would’ve dreamed of. This article is featured in Culture and Ideas. Sign up here to get an update every time a new piece is published. “I literally just threw it into Chat and said: Can you explain ‘The range is hot’ to a 9-year-old?” said Scharf, who’s a biotech professional. “It worked like a charm. All of a sudden, he got it.” They moved onto the next phrase he’d had trouble with. Soon, Scharf’s son knew all about the terminology he needed to understand—plus the mechanics of a long bow, and what separates it from a recurve. Now, three years later, artificial intelligence has taken over his family’s life—and nothing feels impossible...
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