👋 friends!
Another week in the books. I was supposed to be skiing in Lake Tahoe today with Archer (my oldest) but unfortunately we changed our plans. I’m a big fan of powder, but EIGHT FEET of it felt a little too insane. So instead I'm here, warm and dry, writing to you about things that feel equally overwhelming. Lucky us! 😂
In today’s note:
Parenting in the AI era: AI agents - a whole new ballgame and a helpful future-ready framework
Connection spark: how to talk to your kids about the big, hard stuff
Hands-on with AI: trying out Claude Cowork and turn your family photos into theme songs
The whoa zone: a powerful new AI drug discovery model
Let’s dive in! 🤿
PARENTING IN THE AI ERA
An AI leap is happening. Please pay attention.
Over the past few months, there have been significant capability leaps in the world of agentic AI, which is AI that can actually do things for you.
AI Agent tools like Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and OpenClaw can now do almost anything for you that you do on your computer (think: responding to emails, scheduling meetings, filing expense reports, building presentations and reports, registering for extra-curriculars, ordering your groceries, even building and running online businesses).
But the irony - and what’s worrying to me - is that while these tools could be incredibly democratizing (for ~$20/month anyone in the world has access to these capabilities), they are, at least at the moment, creating a massive and widening gap.
We are seeing a world split between those who are trying, learning, and building with these agents, and those who are sitting on the sidelines (aka most of us). But the risk of being a laggard in this moment is increasingly consequential.
There have been a lot of interviews and articles by leaders and experts in the space sounding the alarm bells about this, but this take from an AI startup guy named Matt Schumer finally broke through to the mainstream and is worth reading.
My thoughts: as a parent, the weight of this is two-fold… WTF should I be doing right now to give myself an advantage (and better job and financial security) and WTF should I be doing to support my kids and prepare them for a very different future??
There’s not a simple answer, unfortunately. But it’s clear to me that one goal should be to get ourselves on the right side of the gap.
forgive the levity 🙏
How to get on the right side of the gap 😂
Something that has been driving me crazy lately is that every “expert” grandstands about the massive risks and opportunities and urgency of this moment, yet no one is fricking offering a simple “and so here’s what to do about it.”
And I by no means am a “so here’s what to do about it” expert, but I have been thinking and studying all of this deeply, with my parenting hat on, and want to share where I’m landing on this for me and my family.
It comes down to 3 simple things:
Curiosity. The people who are ahead in AI right now aren't necessarily the most technical, they're the ones who are trying. So should we - try the tools and get our hands dirty. But the bigger bet is on curiosity itself. (e.g. it's always been the curious ones who come out ahead through every major disruption). Build that muscle in ourself and our kids.
Character. The differentiator won't just be skill, it will be judgment. Knowing what to delegate to AI and what we should own. Knowing when to trust it and when to question or challenge. Teaching our kids that a strong sense of self, clear values, and true integrity might be the biggest competitive advantage they'll have.
Connection. Focus on real experiences and real people. AI is going to be very good at a lot of things, but it cannot replicate presence, belonging, or the feeling of being truly known by another human. Invest in those things.
CONNECTION SPARK
How to talk to your kids about AI (and other uncharted territories)
It’s SO hard to be a parent - and a kid! - today - from school lockdown drills to social media pressure to AI insanity…. how on earth do we talk to our kids about this stuff?!
We can’t learn from what our parents did because these things didn’t exist back then. There is simply no parenting playbook.
But a friend of mine had a really important insight: we don’t need to be an expert in every modern challenge to guide our family - timeless lessons and our parenting wisdom still applies.
So whether it’s talking to your kids about how to use AI to learn not cheat, or the fact that AI is not their friend, or how to be “street smart” when using AI, grounding these hard conversations in your proven plays and core parenting principles is a powerful place to start.
He just wrote a book called Family Throughlines that goes into a ton more detail and gives very tangible examples of how to have these conversations. Very worth a read.
Image source: Gemini
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HANDS-ON WITH AI
Put Claude Cowork to work
In the spirit of “let’s get ourselves on the right side of the gap,” I want to encourage you to give an AI agent a try so you can start to see the direction things are going.
I’ve mentioned Claude Cowork before, but I’m going to again because, among the popular agentic tools, it’s probably one of the easiest to use for non-technical people, and (I think) lower risk than some of the others.
To set-up:
You’ll need to upgrade to a paid Claude subscription ($20/month)
Download the Claude desktop app
Change the mode selector from “Chat” to “Cowork”
Optional: enable “connectors” to services you often use like Gmail, Calendar, and Canva
Optional: add the Claude browser extension to Chrome to give Claude/Claude Cowork the ability to access your browser
Optional: add “skills” for tasks you do often - you can add premade skills or create ones
3 things to try:
File organization: organize all my photos that I’ve downloaded onto my computer in a logical way.
Morning briefing: (with gmail/cal access) give me a detailed morning briefing including all the important things to know or remember for the day.
Expense report: drop your receipts into a folder and ask it to create a formatted expense report
Turn your family photos into theme songs
AI music tools have been around for awhile, but they require a paid subscription. This week Google changed the game by launching a few feature in Gemini that lets you make 30 second music tracks from a simple text prompt or even a photo.
Try this (a fun one to do with your kids!):
Open up the Gemini app on your phone or go to gemini.google.com in your browser
Upload a favorite photo
Select “Create Music” from the tool selector
(optional: let it know what style of music you’d like)
Click enter and enjoy the song
Screenshot of Gemini’s music feature
THE WHOA ZONE
A powerful new AI model for drug discovery
Google DeepMind's drug discovery spinoff, Isomorphic Labs, just released a new AI model that is apparently blowing researchers' minds for its ability to accelerate how drugs are developed. If AlphaFold cracked the protein folding problem (a 50-year scientific mystery), this is the next leap - potentially compressing the timeline for new disease treatments from decades to months.
Image source: Isomorphic Labs
That’s a wrap for this week! If you've found this newsletter useful and know anyone else who might also, please forward it along. 🙂 ❤️ 🙏
And, if you have any thoughts, feedback, or requests, please reply or drop a comment - I’d love to hear from you!
Glow on,
Michaela
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