Opinion | Parents, Your Job in Children’s Learning Has Changed in the A.I. Era

Supported by

By Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

Ms. Anderson and Ms. Winthrop are the authors of “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better.”

As the new school year gets underway, artificial intelligence is appearing in many aspects of teaching and learning. Spurred by the hopes that these tools will improve and personalize children’s learning, the large commercial A.I. labs are hard at work: Google rolled out 30 new education tools and features on Gemini in June; in late July, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT’s student tutor study mode.

Parents should be very wary about children having unfettered access to a new digital technology. We saw social media wreak havoc on young people’s emotional states soon after they debuted more than 20 years ago. With A.I., it isn’t just children’s emotional well-being that’s at risk — it’s also their cognitive development. Parents can’t afford to wait for someone else to protect their children. They are, like it or not, the first line of defense and oversight.