This told essay is based on a conversation with Michele Ragon, 46, a LinkedIn communications business partner based in the Bay Area. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
My 11 year old son just finished 5th grade and was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia earlier this year. He has trouble remembering the order of things and organizing his thoughts.
I gave him a new computer for Christmas. He can now use it to access Copilot. The first time we used AI together was to help with research for a school essay about hurricanes.
We both had Copilot open next to his essay notes. Being able to go back and forth with the AI and ask questions was an eye-opener for him. He was able to gain more background from the research he was doing.
A few weeks later, I came up behind him one night while he was working on his computer. Until I started asking questions, I didn’t know he was building his own video games using AI.
I think he likes the simplicity of using AI. He doesn’t have to be a programmer to be this creative. This is a perfect example of how AI does not take away humanity or creativity.
It took my son less than 8 hours total to build a video game with Copilot
There’s a gaming platform called Steam, and my son sometimes browses there and plays free game demos. He does not have a paid account on the site, but is exploring the games on the site.
He had read the book “Mrs. Frisbee and the NIMH Mouse” in school, and something about this book caught his attention. It reminded him of a civilization-building game he saw on Steam that he thought was really cool.
He told me that he had just started asking his co-pilot questions like, “Help me build this game. Here’s my idea. How can I build this game?” Then the model began to lead him up the stairs.
When I asked him how long it took to build, he said it took him 4 days of working in Copilot, 1-2 hours per day, until he had a working version.
He said AI never gets angry.
One of the best things about working with AI, he said, is that it never gets irritated by repeated questions. Just repeat the answer in a different way.
His favorite question is to ask, “What does this mean?” If you receive an error code that you don’t understand, copy it back to Copilot and we’ll walk you through it. If it’s still too technical, ask the question again and the response will be further simplified. Also, if you have trouble typing what you want to hear, use voice mode to talk to the model.
The hardest part, he said, is that you can get stuck with the same error and neither he nor the AI can fix it or diagnose the problem. He doesn’t yet have the maturity to understand that when something like that happens, he needs to do something different or encourage it in a different way. Otherwise, you’ll keep getting the same results.
When something goes wrong, he moves on or tries to work around it, if possible. For example, I changed the mouse to a smiley face because the game kept crashing.
There are concerns about his use of AI, but the creative benefits are huge
I think it was a low-risk environment for the particular game he was building. I wasn’t worried about inappropriate content or answers. Still, I wonder if he has the ability to tell if something is wrong or if the AI gave him incorrect information.
I also think about the games he watches online on this gaming platform where anyone can post.
We like to let our kids explore on their own and then show them what they’re learning, but as parents, are we setting the right parental controls over what our son is watching and what he can build online?
However, building the game was completely his son’s idea and was carried out with the help of AI, but he had no other choice as he doesn’t know how to code. I think for him, using AI has almost amplified his creativity. Because there’s a positive reward in creating something you can actually use and play with.
I think schools should teach children how to use AI appropriately.
I think schools that don’t teach their students how to use AI are doing a huge disservice. I work at a technology company, but I also have conversations with friends who don’t work in technology, and they’re also using AI in different ways.
I heard that a friend who is job-hunting has asked Claude to help him practice interview interviews, which he uses in his daily job-hunting activities. Even when you search for something on Google, you get an AI-generated response right away.
I think it’s terrible that AI is advancing so fast and furiously that we’re not teaching our kids how to use it properly.
I asked my son if there was anything else he wanted to make or was looking forward to using AI. His face lit up and he talked about ideas he had for the next game. As a parent, it’s great to see your child receiving positive reinforcement.
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