AI Is Here. What We Must Not Lose As Parents.

On 12 February, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his Budget 2026 statement. And if there was one message that came through loud and clear, it was this: AI is now at the centre of Singapore’s future.

He announced a National AI Council that he will personally chair. He spoke about companies needing to adopt AI comprehensively or risk being left behind. He described the years ahead as “beset by uncertainties” and positioned AI as a decisive factor for how Singapore will compete in a changed world.

The signal was unmistakable: there is no running away. AI is happening, and it is happening fast.

As a father, I sat with that for a while. Because when a country goes full steam ahead on a technology this transformational, the conversation cannot only be just about economic strategy and workforce transformation. It has to include our future generation. And right now, most of us are figuring out what AI means for our kids without a playbook. Some of us are still figuring out how to handle kids without devices in the first place.

This is not about fear. AI is not the enemy. Even Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has said the goal is for AI to be a tool that empowers people. But it is moving faster than our ability to fully understand its impact on the people we care about most. So instead of asking “How do I keep AI away from my child?”

I think the better question is:

“What must we as humans not forget?”

What the Experts Are Saying

UNICEF updated its Guidance on AI and Children to version 3.0 in December 2025, drawing on research with 12,000 children and caregivers across 12 countries. The picture is clear: children are already living in an AI world. Algorithms shape what they watch, who they connect with, and increasingly, generative AI is creating the content they consume. AI can now generate realistic videos that would have required entire production studios just a year ago.

Harvard’s Ying Xu (https://www.unicef.org/parenting/digital-parenting/how-approach-ai-children), who studies AI in learning and education, offers a reframe that I found really helpful. She says parents should move away from the idea that we need to be experts or supervisors. Right now, adults and children are learning at a similar pace, sometimes children do it even faster than adults.. Her suggestion is to approach AI as co-learners, being open, curious, and willing to figure things out together.

That sounds a lot like what we believe at Look Up Family. None of us have this all figured out. And pretending we do does not help anyone.

UNICEF article also surfaced something that stopped me in my tracks: when children misuse AI for schoolwork, it often reflects disengagement with learning, not just access to a shiny tool. And when kids turn to chatbots for companionship, that might say more about what is happening in their social world than it says about the technology itself.

In other words, our concerns about AI are often really concerns about connection.

Five Things We Must Not Lose As Parents

AI can do incredible things. It can personalise learning, support children with disabilities, and make education more accessible. I am not here to argue against any of that.

But there are things AI cannot replace. And as parents, these are the things worth protecting.

1. The messy, wonderful back-and-forth of human conversation.

Research consistently shows that back-and-forth conversations between parent and child are the single most powerful driver of early language development. Not apps. Not educational videos. Not AI tutors. The moments when you are reading a book together and your child interrupts to tell you about the monkey they saw at the zoo, and you go on a 10-minute tangent that has nothing to do with the story. That is where the magic happens. AI cannot replicate the warmth and spontaneity of a parent who is fully present in that moment.

2. The ability to sit with not knowing.

AI gives answers instantly. That is its superpower. But learning to sit with uncertainty, to wonder, to be curious without getting an immediate answer, that is a deeply human skill. When your child asks “Why is the sky blue?” and you say “Hmm, that is a great question, what do you think?” you are building something no chatbot ever will: the capacity for independent thought.

3. Boredom.

Yes, boredom. In a world where AI can generate endless content tailored perfectly to your child’s interests, boredom becomes a radical act. And boredom is where creativity lives. It is where children learn to entertain themselves, to imagine, to build something from nothing. Protect your child’s right to be bored sometimes. Let them be bored.

4. The experience of struggle.

AI can do homework, write essays, solve problems. But the learning does not happen in the answer. It happens in the struggle to get there. When we let children wrestle with a problem, fail, try again, and eventually figure it out on their own, we are building resilience and confidence that no shortcut can provide.

5. Real relationships with real people.

UNICEF flagged that some children are turning to AI chatbots for companionship. That is not a technology problem. That is a connection problem. And it is a signal for us as parents to ask ourselves: does my child have enough human relationships where they feel truly seen and known? The messy, imperfect, sometimes frustrating, always irreplaceable kind.

So What Do We Actually Do?

You do not need to become an AI expert to parent well in the age of AI. You do not need to ban every tool or vet every app. Here is what I think matters more.

Stay curious alongside your child. If they use voice assistants, educational apps, or even YouTube recommendations, those all involve AI. Ask them what they are using. Ask what they find helpful and what confuses them. Follow their lead. You do not need to have the answers. You just need to be in the conversation.

Watch for what AI might be replacing, not just what it is adding. Is it replacing boredom? Replacing the struggle of figuring things out? Replacing the need to talk to a real person? Those are the signals worth paying attention to.

Keep doing the small things that connect you to your child. Read together. Cook together. Talk about nonsense at dinner. Let them be bored. Let them struggle with problems so that they can learn that there might not be “instant” answers all the time.

Because the one thing AI will never be able to do is look your child in the eye and say, “I see you. I am here. Tell me about your day.”

The world is moving fast. Singapore is moving fast. AI is not waiting for us to be ready.

But here is what I keep reminding myself: the most important things in our children’s development have not changed. They need presence. They need conversation. They need to be bored, to struggle, to feel connected to real people who love them imperfectly.

No technology, however powerful, can replace that. Only you can.

Image Credit: Sunshine Montessori