The other afternoon, my daughter—who’s in that magical phase where stories just pour out of her—was playing with a new AI art tool. She typed in ‘a sparkly unicorn flying over our neighborhood park.’ And wow, out popped this perfect, glossy image. It was technically flawless, but as we looked at it together, she tilted her head and said, ‘It’s nice… but it’s not *my* unicorn.’ And B-A-N-G, it hit me like a lightning bolt! Her own drawings, with their wobbly lines and questionable color choices, have a soul. They have her spark. That AI unicorn? It was just an echo. It made me think about how this applies not just to resumes, but to our kids’ creative expressions as well. This morning, I read a piece about career experts warning job seekers not to put ‘blind faith’ in AI to write their resumes, because it can invent facts and strip away their personality, and I just thought, YES! That’s it! It’s the exact same story, just for grown-ups. It’s a lesson that’s absolutely vital for us as parents to grab onto right now.
AI Co-Pilot or Autopilot: Which is Better for Your Child?
So, this news report was fascinating! It talked about how AI, when asked to write a resume, sometimes just… makes things up! It makes up facts, misnames companies, and creates something so generic that it loses the very essence of the person it’s supposed to represent—classic AI resume mistakes. It’s like having a stranger go to a job interview for you. It might know the right words, but it doesn’t have your stories, your passion, your unique journey. It lacks the *heart*.
Doesn’t that sound EXACTLY like the challenge we’re navigating with our kids? We’re raising the first generation of true AI natives. These tools are their calculators, their encyclopedias, their creative partners in learning. And that is AMAZING! But the core message from these career experts is a golden rule for parenting in this new world: AI should be a co-pilot, not the autopilot.
When your child builds a lopsided LEGO tower that defies physics, or writes a story where the plot makes absolutely no sense but is bursting with imagination—that’s their authentic self shining through.
The temptation might be to use a tool to ‘fix’ it, to make the tower symmetrical or the story grammatically perfect. But in doing so, we risk teaching them that the polished output is more valuable than their beautifully messy process. The resume article warns that employers can spot an AI-generated application a mile away because it feels soulless. We, as parents, can feel the same thing. We crave our kids’ unique, quirky, brilliant voices, not a perfect but empty echo.
How to Build Your Child’s ‘Human Algorithm’ in an AI World?
Here is the part that got me SO FIRED UP! The experts’ number one tip was this: write the resume *yourself* first. Pour out your own experiences, in your own words. *Then*, use AI to help polish it, check for typos, or suggest stronger verbs. It’s a partnership where the human is firmly in the driver’s seat. My friend, this is our game plan! This is how we teach our kids to use these incredible tools as creative partners without losing themselves in the process.
Let’s call it building their ‘Human Algorithm’—their internal compass of curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity. It’s about making sure their own ideas are the starting point for everything. Before we jump to an AI for answers, we can ask: ‘What do YOU think?’ Before they use an AI to create a picture, we can say: ‘Let’s sketch out your wild idea on paper first!’
We did this recently when planning a little family weekend adventure. The old way might have been to just search ‘family activities nearby.’ Instead, we started with a huge piece of paper. I asked my daughter, ‘What does an adventure *feel* like? What do you want to see, smell, and do?’ She came up with ‘climbing something high,’ ‘eating something yummy and sweet,’ and ‘finding a secret path.’ THAT was our foundation—our authentic, human-first plan. Only *then* did we use some tools to find a place with a small hiking trail, a famous local bakery, and a park with winding paths. The tech helped us execute the vision, but the vision itself came from her heart.
What’s Your Child’s Real Resume in an AI World?
At the end of the day, that job resume is just a document. A piece of paper. But our kids? They’re building their *real* resume every single day, and it’s a masterpiece that no AI could ever dream of writing. Every time they ask ‘why?’, they’re adding ‘Curiosity’ to their skill set. Every time they share a toy on the playground or help a friend who fell, they’re adding ‘Empathy and Collaboration.’ Every time they try something new and fail, and then get back up to try again, they’re adding a bold-faced entry for ‘Resilience.’
This is their true portfolio. It’s not about having the perfect answer for a test or the most polished project in the class. It’s about nurturing the irreplaceable human skills and qualities that technology can only ever supplement, never replace. The world they will inherit won’t just need people who can operate AI; it will desperately need people who can dream, connect, question, and lead with heart. People who know their own story and can tell it with passion and conviction.
So let’s not worry about the future. Let’s be wildly, enthusiastically present. Let’s celebrate their wobbly unicorns, their nonsensical stories, and their lopsided towers. Because in that beautiful, human messiness lies their unique genius. So let’s celebrate their unique genius and help them shine as brightly as they can. That’s the voice the world is waiting to hear. And our job isn’t to polish it away, but to turn up the volume as loud as it can go!
Source: Don’t make these AI mistakes on your resume, career experts say: ‘It could ruin your chances’, CNBC, 2025-09-15