| Yes, these are great questions, and I appreciate your politeness. Basically, I think it's okay to have a bit of fun playing AI-generated video games at your techie uncle's house, and their parents agree. And for what it's worth, Aiden drew every character and boss himself - the game was built from his drawings. My nephews are otherwise very active, learning music, martial arts, and other sports. But when they visit, I let them play games in between other activities. My parents refused to let me play any video games at home, and I still think that was really lame. Video games are another art form to be appreciated - they just need to be enjoyed in moderation. Generally, though, I worry about the future and the potential for cognitive decline that comes from having AI agents do everything. I don't have a good answer here, except that I suspect we'll have to intersperse AI use with periods of deliberate daily cognitive struggle to avoid decline. |
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| ▲ | irjustin 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Just like many forms of content there's an appropriate age. The problem with AI, with regards to kids, is it's as wide as the internet. There's lots of great parts. My kids ask great questions and get even better, accurate answers; moreso than I can give. But then, there's lots of parts that shouldn't be introduced until later with other parts arguably not introduced at all. I've met kids who have unfettered internet access at age 10, and the results aren't great. It's all there, just a question away - just like the internet. | |
| ▲ | 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | TedDoesntTalk 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | “In February 2024, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III died by suicide after forming an intense emotional and romantic attachment to a Character.AI chatbot modeled after Daenerys Targaryen ("Dany"). His mother, Megan Garcia, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Character.AI and Google, which settled confidentially in January 2026. In April 2025, 16-year-old Adam Raine died by suicide after months of private conversations with ChatGPT-4o where he confided about self-harm and suicidal ideation. His parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the model provided specific methods and discouraged him from disclosing his distress to his mother.” Those are the ones we know about. There are probably others that didn’t result in suicide but in other emotional problems. Having said that, my son and I had tremendous fun with Sora when it was around. | |
| ▲ | brink 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Guns are a technology, are you going to let them play with that too? Everyone on this site can feel the effect that AI is having on their brain. There is a very real tension between the power of AI and the cognitive impact it has from using it that needs to be talked about. Pretending that isn't real or shouldn't be taken seriously doesn't help. | | |
| ▲ | timschmidt 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Where I'm from, hunter's training and kids with guns are a relatively common thing. Kids driving tractors and other heavy equipment too. The training part is important. The rules with guns are that you always check if it's loaded when you take it in hand, you never point it at something you don't intend to kill, keep you finger off the trigger and the safety on, watch your fingers don't get pinched by the action, brace it properly with your hands or against the shoulder, stop if the gun malfunctions, and I try to keep it pointed at the ground (not in the air) and unload it before handing it to anyone else. Not sure what the equivalent for AI should be yet. | | | |
| ▲ | echelon 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I grew up in the south. Of course. There are lots of "dangerous" things. Kitchen knives at Target, cars and roads and highways, subway stations, mountains, strong tides, fire, falling. I think we're perfectly capable of surviving in this landscape. We evolved to explore this landscape. Stop living in Disneyland plastic bubbles. Step outside into the dangerous world. Dream about the impossible. I'm far more worried about social media and gamification/exploitation of emotions and insecurities. Our billion year old biology can survive in the wild - it isn't so great at dealing with the algorithm. |
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| ▲ | jazzyjackson 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Somebody never read Amusing Ourselves to Death |
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