Who’s Raising Our Kids—Us or the Algorithms? w Avriel Epps

And when does the Kid Revolution start?

Hey friends,

What if I told you that the biggest challenge facing kids today isn’t just screen time or social media—but the slow erosion of their sense of self?

This week on Life With Machines, I sat down with Dr. Avriel Epps, aka King Avriel, a former child actor turned computational social scientist, who’s been thinking hard about how kids grow up online—and what that does to identity. Avriel’s life is basically a blueprint for reinvention. She’s used technology to experiment, to take control, to forge identities. But now, she warns, those same systems are locking kids into fixed identities, shaping them before they even know who they are.

If you’ve seen Google’s recent launch of Gemini for Kids, you know this conversation couldn’t be timelier. Why the rush to get children on these platforms? Who’s profiting, and who’s protecting the youngest users? We’re digging into all of it.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review:

Watch the full episode here:

Audio version of rough draft of this newsletter, recorded on streets of Chicago

Baratunde’s Take

Baratunde and Avriel on the Life With Machines set

Here’s what’s sticking with me after my time with Avriel:

(1) The Generational Gap Is Bigger Than Ever

Decades ago, I noticed something that’s only gotten sharper over time: the experiential gap between generations isn’t about years anymore. It’s about technology. You can have siblings five years apart who grew up in radically different realities. For most of human history, parents could pass down wisdom because they’d lived through similar experiences.

But how do you guide, mentor, or model when the world your kid inhabits feels like another planet? We’ve got to find new ways to bridge that gap—maybe through two-way mentorship, shared rituals, or community work that grounds us in something deeper and more embodied.

All I know is, ignoring the problem won’t solve it.

(2) Stronger Selves, Better Shields

One of the most powerful things Avriel said was about inoculating young people against manipulation by giving them a stronger sense of self. If you know who you are, you’re a lot harder to push around—whether by an algorithm or a classmate.

For me, that came from being raised unapologetically Black. Thank you, Mama! For others, it might come from family traditions, local identity, or a sense of personal interests.

But the bottom line is: kids need to be raised as something. Without that grounding, it’s easy to get swept away by the forces trying to monetize their attention and shape them in to perfect little consumers. And those forces are getting stronger every day.

(3) Making the Invisible… Visible

Avriel shared how she explains automation and algorithms to her own child, pulling back the curtain on the so-called magic of GPS or digital assistants. It’s a reminder that we need to demystify these systems—not just for kids, but for ourselves. “Magic” isn’t an acceptable answer for how technical systems with embedded world views and power play out in our lives.

And fortunately, we have tools, including AI, that can help us ask better questions about where and how these systems shape our lives. We’re stronger when we face these shifts together, across generations. And that means resisting together—whether it’s a kid uprising or collectively withholding our data.

Now… a data strike isn’t going to be easy, but subscribe and stay tuned because in an upcoming episode, we’ll be sitting down with Dr. Milagros Miceli to talk about the hidden labor behind AI—the data workers whose hands and eyes make these systems run.

Because revealing the invisible layers of this allegedly magical technology doesn’t just come down to understanding how algorithms work. It comes down to understanding our own contributions to these systems—and the workers who filter, label, and clean up the mess.

Life With BLAIR

In this episode, we challenged BLAIR to translate Gen Alpha slang—think “sigma,” “infinite aura,” and “mewing.”

Result?

Watch BLAIR try to keep up with the kids here.

Team Recommendations

Want to dig deeper? Here are some fresh picks inspired by this episode:

• Avriel Epps’ A Kids Book About AI Bias, for you or the little ones in your life!

• This article on Google’s plans to roll out Gemini AI to children under 13 via Family Link.

• Worried about AI taking your job? Read this piece on what happened to a mock company staffed entirely with AI agents

Thanks for being part of this conversation. Now a question for you: What’s one thing you wish you had been taught about technology when you were a kid? Drop a comment, share this with the parents, caregivers, or young people in your life, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Peace,
Baratunde