AI Snack Bots, Referees, Musicians and Board of Brains
Dad.AI Takes a Summer Break: Recharging for the Future of AI-assisted Parenting! 🚀
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Welcome to Dad.ai, the podcast at the intersection of AI and parenting! This marks our 10th episode, a milestone we’re incredibly proud of, especially since we’ve hit it in just as many weeks! It's been an amazing journey exploring the exciting and sometimes bewildering world of AI and how it's reshaping our roles as parents.
As we wrap up this initial run, we're excited to announce that Dad.ai will be taking a summer break! But don't worry, we're not just kicking back. We're using this time to re-haul the podcast's structure, with plans to introduce exciting guests, host community meetups, and incorporate all your valuable feedback to make Dad.AI even better. We’ve felt incredible momentum and excitement building, and we're truly energized by the vision of AI companions helping us become better parents, partners, and active participants in our households.
AI-Powered Snack Bots: Nutritional Nanny or Dietary Dictator? 🍎🤖
Growing up, I always had my AI-dietitian in the form of my sister - who is a registered nutritionist. Personally, I don;t love the concept of smart-house AI snack-bots running my kids food palette and preferences. What happens when kids constantly demand sugary treats? The concept of sycophants would tell you that AI might eventually appease them, leading to unhealthy dietary outcomes. It actually reminds me of Pavlov's dogs, where children could manipulate the system for unhealthy rewards.
Jake argued for the benefits of AI in simplifying the mental load of meal planning and nutrition. He admitted that most parents aren't nutritional experts and often make quick, easy, but not always healthy decisions. He believes AI, with proper guardrails, could optimize kids' diets to maximize brain development and ensure balanced nutritional profiles, far beyond what an average busy parent could achieve. He humorously cautioned against the paperclip maximizer scenario, where an AI focused solely on, say, fiber, could turn a child into 99% fiber and 1% human.. I think its safe to say who won this debate.
AI as the Ultimate Arbiter of Sibling Rivalry: Peacemaker or Progress Blocker? 🤼♀️🤖
Again, growing up with two sisters, there was no need for an AI-arbitrator. My sisters always won and we didn’t need AI intervening in our sibling squabbles. It’s important for children to learn to share, compromise, and navigate disagreements independently. Sibling rivalries, while sometimes frustrating for parents, teach crucial life skills like resilience, conflict resolution, and coping with disappointment, which are invaluable for future relationships in school, work, and beyond.
This was a tough sell for anyone to take so Jake also sided with my argument. He double-downed, stating that constant AI intervention could prevent children from developing self-regulation skills. Drawing on his daughter's Daniel Tiger inspired self-calming techniques, he emphasized that allowing children to work through their emotions and conflicts independently is vital for their long-term development. He suggested that AI could be a pull (an optional tool kids can choose to engage with for mediation) rather than a push (an automated peacekeeper), to preserve their autonomy.
AI News Flash: Waymo for Teens, AI Referees and Musicians
Waymo for Teens: Autonomous Rides for the Next Generation 🚗👦👧
Waymo is now offering accounts for teens aged 14 to 17, starting in Phoenix, Arizona. Parents can invite their teens to the program, allowing them to hail autonomous rides independently.
To nobody’s surprise, Jake enthusiastically supported this, highlighting the safety aspect of having no human driver and the built-in guardrails for transparency. He sees this as a no-brainer for older teens who can articulate their needs and exit the vehicle if necessary, predicting that self-driving bus services will follow suit.
I finally changed my tune to this long-standing debate in the Makler household. Particularly given the parent-linking feature. I have come to terms that I would prefer an autonomous vehicle over a random stranger driving my child at the teenage years.
Wimbledon Replaces Line Judges with AI Cameras 🎾🤖
In a major shift for sports, after nearly 150 years, Wimbledon is replacing human line judges with AI-powered cameras. This decision aims to eliminate human error in calling fast-moving tennis balls.
Jake’s stance was predicated on the speed of tennis balls. Yes Jake, they have been doing this for 150 years but the speed is now too fast for the human eye? However, he highlighted that using high-fidelity AI-driven cameras offers objective, consistent calls and a clear video fallback for reviews, improving accuracy and fairness in sports where human limitations are evident.
With everything, we can’t have all or nothing with instant gratification. Shocking, they ripped the band-aid off and removed all line judges and the result - several missed calls due to malfunctions with electronic line-calling systems. AI will no doubt augment referees' roles, completely removing them, as Wimbledon has done, might be too fast and furious. The flip side for childhood sports games is if AI would be too precise? Imagine how awful (and slow) games will become when AI referees are calling out every minor infraction in every game. Woof that hour at the soccer field will turn into 3hrs you nor your kids will ever get back.
AI-Generated Music Takes Center Stage: The Velvet Sundown Phenomenon 🎶🤖
A new indie psych-rock band, The Velvet Sundown, rapidly gained over 850,000 listeners on Spotify. However, a music streaming app, Geezer, using its own AI tool, confidently determined that 100% of the band's tracks were AI-generated.
My wife, Sidney, played Piano as a child. Do you care? Probably not. The point being is if AI can create hit music, will it diminish the importance of children learning to play instruments and developing their artistic creativity? Is the future, where households encourage building albums by prompting AI over traditional musical education? What a time to be alive!
Jake brought up Bobby-D and drew parallels to past musical innovations when Bob Dylan went all-in on the electronic guitar. He argued that if the music sounds good and is enjoyed, the creation process matters less. While acknowledging that true mastery might still require musical knowledge, Jake celebrated The Velvet Sundown's success as a unique, AI-assisted creative endeavor, emphasizing that innovation should be embraced.
Community Spotlight: Building a "Board of Brains" 🧠💡
Our community spotlight featured Lani Assaf, from Anthropic, who shared her favorite Claude technique: building a "board of brains" within AI projects. She creates distinct brains (e.g., customer, CMO, influencer) by providing them with specific context (interview transcripts, support tickets, product feedback). This allows for targeted feedback on new product messaging from various perspectives.
Jake loved this concept but noted a current technical gap: it's hard to make these brains interact and argue with each other to reach a consensus, similar to a real-world boardroom. He envisioned a future where users could enter a digital room with predefined personas and contexts, allowing for dynamic, multi-perspective discussions to pressure-test ideas or even generate code.
I sincerely think this is a step towards interpersonal agentic workflows for households, where a personal board of advisors (e.g., tax advisor brain, financial advisor brain, parenting coach brain) could be leveraged on demand for complex planning and decision-making. Maybe this is Dad.AI’s next adventure beyond the podcast?!
That’s a wrap on the first quarter (season) of Dad.AI! We are so grateful for your support and enthusiasm. As we take this summer break, we’re more excited than ever for the future of AI in parenting.
We’re keen to hear from you! What would you like to see in the next season of Dad.AI? Are there specific guests you'd love to hear from, topics you want us to deep dive into, or ideas for our community meetups? Let us know!
With love from Dad.ai, your personal board of advisors for parenting.