AI reshaping modern parenting

Digital tutor

While Zhu wrestled with emotional boundaries in Hangzhou, 1,000 kilometers south in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, a Peking University graduate surnamed Yin sees AI as a tutor who is always available so that her daughter's early learning routine can be optimized.

In China's top-tier cities, parents face intense anxiety over educational "involution" (neijuan). For Yin, however, AI actually helps reduce that academic pressure.

"It boosts efficiency, frees up time and makes parents' lives easier. That saved time lets us be present with our children or help them develop other interests," Yin said.

"Degree devaluation is almost certain. A degree isn't worth what it used to be. But you can't stop studying or taking exams," she added. "You need a smarter, faster way to get a decent educational background, then use the leftover time to build real skills including communication, building influence, knowing what industry she wants to be in."

Yin uses AI in three key areas of her daughter's early education: English, Chinese literacy and a broad general knowledge curriculum most parents couldn't teach alone.

AI is proving to be a highly efficient and affordable tool for early English education. It can cover much of the training in listening, speaking, reading and writing. While not a full replacement for human teachers, the cost savings are significant. Families could save nearly 30,000 yuan ($4,400) per year by switching to AI-driven tools.

"I have four different AI English tutors for my daughter, one for each stage as she grows up. She also uses an AI reading tool that gives her a mind map after she finishes a picture book, so it helps her retell the story," Yin said. "Her spoken English is almost at the level of her Chinese. It's like a mother tongue to her."

For learning Chinese characters, Yin said: "We didn't want it to be boring, so we came up with a fun way to take all the characters she already knows and turn them into little comics or picture books. Instead of just memorizing, she's actually reading and making stories with the words she knows. It just feels a lot more natural that way."

Perhaps the most ambitious use of AI is in what Yin calls her "general knowledge system".

Topics include philosophy, economics, astronomy, biology and life sciences. "Which parent can master all of that? But AI can," she said. It takes about two hours for AI to produce a detailed two-week plan on a chosen theme.

Yin doesn't believe in shielding her daughter from the technology. "You can't keep children away from AI any more than you can keep them off the internet. Imagine someone today saying, 'There's bad stuff online, so my child will never use the internet'. Nobody does that. Ten years from now, AI will be exactly the same."

For now, she guides her daughter's use of the tools. "I introduce them and supervise her. She knows how to use them, but doesn't see them as strange or special. This generation is growing up with AI. To them, it's just there."