From ABCs to AI: How to prepare our kids for AI learning
Log Entry 5: 2025‑05‑03 KST
Update
The twins are still in the “put everything in your mouth” phase, but I’ve started thinking about what kind of learners they’ll become. Not just what they'll study, but how. Because by the time they’re ready to explore the world, AI won’t be an add-on. It’ll be woven into the fabric of how we learn.
Observation
“Are you really going to send your kids to law school? How about copywriting? Are they going to learn to code?” asks the pundit in a short-form video on X. “Here’s my grand theory: AI is coming for all of our jobs, and we’re fucked.”
Large language models have outpaced almost every other form of learning. I use them constantly, more than books, courses, or podcasts. They let me go deep, pivot, and cross domains. But that kind of open-ended exploration only works once you’ve got the basics: reading fluently, asking good questions, having a feel for structure.
It reminds me of learning Korean. At first, I had to drill the alphabet, then vocabulary, then grammar. Mnemonics helped. It was mechanical, but necessary. That foundation gave me access. Now I speak fluently, build relationships, run businesses. But I didn’t stay in the drills. I moved beyond them.
I try to imagine how Theo and Chloe will learn. Right now, at four months, they’re just learning to grip things and sit up. There’s a big gap between that and posing questions to a machine intelligence. That gap will need to be bridged with structured learning.
It’s made me reflect on the work I’m doing in my startup. We’ve been building structured AI tutors. With an elementary school academy, we turned their textbooks into AI tutor lessons, step-by-step paths through English vocabulary and grammar. Each lesson teaches, checks understanding, reinforces, and builds upward. It’s not flashy. But it gives kids a ramp.
I build these for my startup, and for clients. But when I think of Theo and Chloe, I want to build something just for them, something they can use early. Probably phonics first, then reading. I imagine an iPad app using TTS, AI-generated visuals, and interactive feedback loops. Not to drill them, but to engage them. I don’t want them pulled along by pressure. I want them pulled in by wonder and pushed forward by curiosity.
That’s the tension. Too much structure, and you strangle the flow. Too little, and it’s just noise. The goal is to hold them in that middle space, enough scaffolding to support a flow state, enough slack for curiosity to stretch. Easier said than done, but maybe AI can help strike that balance for the next generation.
So now I’m asking myself, what else could structured AI look like for early readers, for young thinkers? What will new startups create? Maybe simple loops where Chloe learns letter sounds through stories. Maybe a game where Theo builds words by exploring a world of talking creatures.
And when they’re ready to go further, what then?
The point isn’t to automate teaching. It’s to create momentum, from structured understanding toward self-guided creation. That’s the real goal, it always has been. Not just to help them pass tests. But to help them realize they can do things. Make things. Express themselves through doing.
That’s what I’m trying to model myself, imperfectly, every day.
Capsule Note
Chloe and Theo will need a lot of structured learning before they can use AI well.