AI – Augmenting Your Child’s Humanness

If you haven’t seen WALL-E, the 2008 Disney Pixar film, you should.

It’s a surprisingly thoughtful animated movie about a lonely little robot living on an abandoned Earth centuries into the future. At one point in the film, humans are living aboard a spaceship where every aspect of life has been automated and optimized for comfort. The humans are entertained, fed, transported, and protected—but disconnected, passive, and disengaged. Their comforts have quietly consumed their humanity. It’s a very cute movie, and there is also relevance to parenting in there.

Of course, we all pursue comfort to some degree. Comfort is not evil. Every generation works to improve life for the next one. But a question worth asking is this:

What happens when convenience begins replacing the very experiences that form strong human beings?

Artificial Intelligence is not just another technological step forward. It may become the most transformative force since the Industrial Revolution.

AI will likely:

reduce the cost of intellectual work
increase productivity dramatically
create extraordinary convenience
automate many routine tasks
reshape education and employment

Your children may someday live far more comfortably than you do. Or they may face enormous uncertainty. Most likely, both.

But even before AI fully arrives, warning signs are already visible. We are more connected digitally yet increasingly disconnected relationally.

The University of Arizona reported that the number of people with no close friends has quadrupled since 1990.
Because of technology, we speak hundreds of fewer words per day than previous generations.
Trust in institutions—and even trust in one another—continues to decline.

Technology is making life easier. But it is not automatically making people healthier, wiser, deeper, or happier. So, what qualities will matter most in the future?

Ironically, the ability to be human – Authentic. Engaged. Curious. Relational. Virtuous. Resilient. Wisdom will matter. Character will matter. The ability to communicate, empathize, work hard, and build relationships may become more valuable—not less—in an AI-shaped world.

This Letter is not intended to sound a cultural alarm bell for you to oppose AI. You are not powerless. In fact, parents occupy the most important positions in this transition because you stand in the gap between your own upbringing and your children’s future. You still get to shape culture inside your home. Culture prepares your children for wisdom.

So, augment your child’s humanness by emphasizing the following:

Read. Read constantly. Read stories, biographies, ideas, theology, history. Then discuss them together. At dinner, ask:
“What did you learn today?”
“What surprised you?”
“What did you disagree with?”

Help your children build an internal world—not merely consume external stimulation.

Teach Work. Real work. Let them learn effort, responsibility, and competence.

Teach them how to: use tools, mow lawns, clean messes, fix things, and finish difficult tasks.

Children who learn responsibility gain confidence.

Create Analog Rhythms. Consider regular periods without technology. How about “Analog Sunday.” No endless scrolling. No isolated screen time. Let technology augment, not replace.

Just family: meals, conversations, walks, games, church, and reflection. Technology is a wonderful servant but a poor master.

Teach Conversation. Children must learn how to look people in the eye, ask questions, listen carefully, and engage comfortably with all kinds of people.

At restaurants, stores, church, and family gatherings—invite them into real interactions.

Human connection is a skill. And like every skill, it strengthens with practice.

Teach Virtue. In the end, the deepest protection for your children will not be technology literacy alone.

It will be character.

Ask yourselves: What virtues define our family? How about: Others-oriented. Honesty. Effort. Persistence. Self-control. For starters. (See our letter Family Identity)

Technology changes rapidly, yet virtue ages remarkably well.

The future is arriving faster than any generation has experienced before.

But you do not need to fear AI on your children’s behalf. AI may dramatically improve life in many ways. The goal is not to reject it, but to ensure that convenience never replaces humanity, like in WALL-E.

To your family’s future,

Lis and Dave

Follow us on the OneFamily Podcast!

https://onefamilyhwl.org/event/podcast/