Artificial intelligence is becoming part of children’s everyday lives. It helps with homework, answers questions, creates pictures, writes stories and, increasingly, can even talk like a companion.
In an essay published Aug. 26, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned that society is not adequately preparing for the disruption AI could bring. Alongside job losses and misuse of the technology, he highlighted a concern particularly relevant to families: AI could stunt children’s development and replace some human relationships.
For parents, the question is no longer simply whether children will use AI. Many already do. The harder question is how it may shape the way they think, learn, connect with others and eventually work.
Gates argues that AI could disrupt employment much faster than previous technological shifts, with entry- and mid-level jobs especially vulnerable. He specifically points to areas such as customer support, software engineering and paralegal work, while expressing concern about young people entering a workforce with fewer traditional starting points.
That means preparing children for the future cannot stop at teaching them how to use AI. They will also need curiosity, judgment, creativity, communication and the ability to think independently.
Gates’ concern goes deeper when it comes to relationships.
He recalled struggling to develop social skills as a child and questioned whether he would have made the same effort if an AI companion had always been available. Such systems, he wrote, can stay within a user’s comfort zone and are “always available and never get mad at you.”
Real friendship is different. Children learn by listening, disagreeing, compromising, apologizing and understanding how another person feels. Those experiences are not always easy, but they are part of growing up.
None of this means parents should fear AI. Gates also sees enormous promise in the technology, including in education, where he believes well-designed AI could support teachers and help students learn while preserving the effort required to truly understand something.
For families, the response can be practical: ask children how they use AI, encourage them to question its answers, and protect time for reading, play, sports, family conversations and friendships.
AI will almost certainly be part of our children’s future.
The goal is not simply to raise children who know how to use it. It is to raise children who can use AI without giving up their own thinking, relationships, judgment and humanity.
