A Parent's Guide to AI

The AI Your Kids Are Already Using, Without Knowing It's AI

Yvan Boily — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Before your child ever opens ChatGPT, they've already been shaped by AI: in their TikTok feed, their Snapchat filters, their game recommendations, and the autocomplete on their phone. Here's what that actually means.

Do It By Hand First: A Method for Keeping Critical Thinking Alive in the Age of AI

Yvan Boily — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0700

There's a habit I've used for twenty years to learn hard things at work: solve it by hand, write down how, script the parts that repeat, and only automate once I truly understand it. It turns out that same order, do the work first and hand it off last, lines up with a lot of what we know about how durable understanding forms, and with the kind of thinking AI makes it dangerously easy to skip. Here's the method, the research behind it, and how to use it with your kids.

Is Using AI Cheating? What Schools Actually Expect (And How to Find Out)

Yvan Boily — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0700

"Is AI cheating?" is the wrong question. The right question is what your child's specific school expects for each specific assignment — and how to find out before something goes wrong.

When Your Child's Best Friend Is an AI: Companions, Chatbots, and Emotional Dependency

Yvan Boily — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Apps like Character.ai are designed to feel like relationships. For some children, that's genuinely useful. For others, it becomes a problem. Here's what parents need to know.

I Asked Claude to Build a Real Tool in an Evening — Here's Exactly How, Including What Went Wrong

Yvan Boily — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

You keep hearing that "AI can build software now." That's true, and it's also more complicated than the headline. So I asked Claude to build a real, working tool — a photo-blur scanner — and it did. I didn't write a line of it. I kept every prompt, then had Claude analyze its own build. Here's the whole thing: the prompts I typed, the decisions I made, the night it quietly accomplished nothing, and what it cost.

What If Your Child Is the One Making Deepfakes

Yvan Boily — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Post 9 covered what to do if your child is a victim of deepfakes. This post covers the harder conversation — what to do if your child is the one creating them.

Try It Yourself: What Twelve Posts About AI Taught Me About Parenting in the Age of AI

Yvan Boily — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Twelve posts. Twelve weeks of practical AI guidance for parents. Here's what the series covered, the challenges it raised, and the through-lines that connect it all.

Part 12 - Keeping Up When AI Changes Every Month: Five Resources Every Parent Should Bookmark

Yvan Boily — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI changes fast. This final post gives you five resources to bookmark so you can stay current without spending more time on it than you have.

Part 11 - Writing Your Family AI Agreement: A Step-by-Step Guide

Yvan Boily — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

After ten posts building your own understanding of AI, you're ready to have the family conversation. Here's how to write an agreement your children will actually follow.

Part 10 - Recognizing Bias in AI Answers: A Skill Every Parent Can Learn

Yvan Boily — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI produces the most common answer, not the most accurate one — and "most common" reflects whose voices dominated its training data. Here's how to recognize bias and teach your children to do the same.

Part 9 - Deepfakes Are Real: What Parents Need to See to Understand

Yvan Boily — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Deepfakes — AI-generated fake images, video, and audio — are already being used to harm people. Here's what parents need to understand, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Part 8 - AI for Busy, Overwhelmed, or Differently-Abled Parents

Yvan Boily — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI's accessibility features aren't just for students. Here are four concrete ways AI can help parents with translation, summarization, planning, and drafting.

Part 7 - School AI vs. Home AI: What Every VSB Parent Should Understand

Yvan Boily — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

The school version of Copilot and the home version share a name but operate under very different rules. Here's what VSB parents need to know.

Part 6 - Using AI as Your Personal Research Assistant

Yvan Boily — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI is genuinely useful for learning tasks: summarizing documents, explaining concepts, and generating questions. Here are three concrete things to try this week.

Part 5 - How to Spot AI Mistakes Before Your Kids Don't

Yvan Boily — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI mistakes look identical to correct answers. This post gives you a simple routine for catching errors — one you can use yourself and teach to your children.

Part 4 - Your Privacy Checklist: What Never to Share With AI

Yvan Boily — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Before you spend much time with AI tools, there's one thing you need to understand: what you type doesn't always stay private. Here's what to know and what to check.

Part 3 - ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity: A Plain-Language Comparison for Parents

Yvan Boily — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

A plain-language guide to the five AI tools your children are most likely to encounter — what each one does, who made it, and which one to try first.

Want to Build an AI Guide for Parents in Your Province or Territory? Here's Where to Start.

Yvan Boily — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

A Parent's Guide to AI was written for BC. Most of it applies across Canada — but school policies, privacy laws, and local resources vary by province. Here's a practical roadmap for building a version specific to where you live.

Part 2 - What AI Actually Is (And Why That Matters for Parents)

Yvan Boily — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

AI works like a very sophisticated autocomplete — it predicts words, it doesn't think. Understanding this changes how you respond when your child brings home AI-assisted work.

Part 1 - Before You Talk to Your Kids About AI, Try It Yourself

Yvan Boily — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

The best way to guide your children through the AI era is to try these tools yourself first. Here's how to get started in five minutes.

Introducing A Parent's Guide to Artificial Intelligence

Yvan Boily — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Introducing A Parent's Guide to Artificial Intelligence — a free, plain-language resource for BC parents navigating AI in schools and at home.