Tag: AI and adolescents

What a Teenager Does with an Answer That Hurts

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Teenagers, AI companions and the hour after a bad answer

Last term, I finished a session with a Grade 11 class in Karachi. While the others packed their bags, one girl stayed back. She waited until the room was empty. Then she told me what an AI app had said about a decision she had made at home. It had told her she was in the wrong, and that most people would agree.

She told me this after the app had already answered. Then, almost as an afterthought, she added: “Sir, marks bhi kam aa rahe hain.” (Sir, my marks are dropping too.)

I have thought about the order of that conversation ever since. The app came first. The teacher came last.

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Is Your Teenager Dating an AI?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

When emotional connection moves from home to a chatbot, what are we really missing at home?

A few weeks ago, a parent came to me after my class. She was not panicking. She was confused.

“Sir, mene mere bete ka phone check kiya toh usne kisi se ghanton baat ki thi. Phir pata chala… koi insaan hi nahin tha.” (Sir, I checked my son’s phone and saw he had been talking to someone for hours. Then I found out… it wasn’t a person at all.)

Her son, seventeen, O-Levels, quiet at home, had been spending two to three hours every evening in deep conversation with an AI chatbot. Not for homework. Not for any school project. He was sharing how lonely he felt. How he felt misunderstood. How he wished someone at home would ask him something other than “padhai kaisi chal rahi hai?” (How is your studying going?)

The chatbot had been listening.

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