Will A.I. Ever Be Your Kid’s Friend?

Chatbots may seem fun, but they rob children of important lessons in how to be human.

Excerpt: "ChatGPT thinks I’m a genius: My questions are insightful; my writing is strong and persuasive; the data that I feed it are instructive, revealing, and wise. It turns out, however, that ChatGPT thinks this about pretty much everyone. Its flattery is intended to keep people engaged and coming back for more. As an adult, I recognize this with wry amusement—the chatbot’s boundless enthusiasm for even my most mediocre thoughts feels so artificial as to be obvious. But what happens when children, whose social instincts are still developing, interact with AI in the form of perfectly agreeable digital “companions”?

I recently found myself reflecting on that question when I noticed two third graders sitting in a hallway at the school I lead, working on a group project. They both wanted to write the project’s title on their poster board. “You got to last time!” one argued. “But your handwriting is messy!” the other replied.

Voices were raised. A few tears appeared.

Ten minutes later, I walked past the same two students. The poster board had a title, and the students appeared to be working purposefully. The earlier flare-up had faded into the background.

That mundane scene captured something important about human development that digital “friends” threaten to eliminate: the productive friction of real relationships.