When my daughter turned 16, I didn’t hand her the car keys and hope for the best. She spent a few months in driver’s ed, practicing parallel parking, checking blind spots, and learning to handle heavy traffic and bad weather. Like all new drivers, she needed guidance and practice before she could drive safely on her own.

With generative AI tools, we all have something far more powerful than a car. And most of us aren’t getting lessons at all.

Generative AI went from “nobody’s heard of it” to “everyone is using it” to “everyone is worried about it” faster than any technology in history. After years of news feeds, recommendations, and notifications shaping our attention, identity, and behavior behind the scenes, people are demanding AI literacy. Why? Like the Wizard pulling back the curtain, AI tools are out in the open.

Instead of invisible algorithms steering us, we’re the ones giving the prompts and receiving responses with super-human speed and fluency. AI can chat, generate art, produce stories, answer questions, mimic reasoning, and simulate companionship. These systems that “talk back” require cognitive and emotional skills that don’t fully develop until adolescence. Having cognitive capacity doesn’t mean teens have the skills to use AI responsibly, but their natural curiosity and tech-forward approach to life mean they’ll definitely try it.

For two decades, our response to new technology has been bans and restrictions rather than building the educational infrastructure to help kids understand how technology works or develop the habits to use it safely.

Restrictions don’t teach judgment. The call for AI literacy finally points us in the right direction. Rather than putting up roadblocks, we can teach kids how to be........

© Psychology Today