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I asked Eric Weinstein about my baby's future in an AI world.

I asked Eric Weinstein about my baby's future in an AI world.

"Teach your children high agency. Teach them to fail. Make sure you don't protect them from risk."

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James Spiro
Mar 31, 2025
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The Spiro Circle
The Spiro Circle
I asked Eric Weinstein about my baby's future in an AI world.
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This week, I attended a talk in Tel Aviv with Eric Weinstein, a Mathematician, Physicist, Economist, Venture Capitalist, and Podcaster. He is visiting Israel for the first time in 30 years and spending his time talking to VCs, techies, students, and others as he discusses his ideas on Israel, technology, and culture.

At an event hosted by Grove Ventures and moderated by Lotan Levkowitz, the duo discussed “the invisible arm of AI”. As their conversation came to an end, I spoke with Eric and asked him about the impact AI will have on young people being born today.

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Since I’m going to become a father to a boy in a few weeks, I’ve naturally already been thinking about his job prospects. So, I wanted to know what parents can do today to help children in a world that will only become more intertwined with AI as they grow up and enter the workforce. Here’s what I asked.

10 years ago, many would say the safe bet would be a career in computer science or programming, but even those jobs run the risk of being replaced by AI. So what raw skills or qualities should parents encourage their young children to hone to make themselves invaluable in the age of AI?

My instinct is that society should encourage young people to foster skills that are aligned with the needs of AI but avoid the risk of being made redundant by its technology. The ability to think creatively, ask the right questions, or stand on stage and speak publicly are all soft skills that cannot easily be replicated by a machine or outsourced to an algorithm. A few years ago, we thought that AI would replace workers, but it is becoming clear that it is workers who work with AI who will replace those who don’t. Therefore, it is vital to teach children how to strengthen their natural abilities to work alongside AI as a tool instead of relying on it entirely.

Even more recently, I have considered the importance of teaching children to be resilient in the face of adversity, something I have seen with my own eyes among Israelis following the outbreak of the war. To be uncomfortable or to learn how to manage the stressors that inevitably come with life will make kids stronger, which will, in turn, set them apart from their contemporaries.

The response Eric gave me was as follows (lightly edited for clarity):

“The age of job roles is over. All the things worth doing will increasingly be one-offs. Therefore, what you're really trying to do is

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