When AI Can Do a Task Instantly, We Must Remind Our Children That Their Hard-Won Efforts Matter

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,

But whoever gathers little by little

will increase it.”

Proverbs 13:11

At her drafting table my fourteen-year-old daughter is working away at her latest artwork. For years she had developed drawing skills from merely watching YouTube tutorials; but there came a point when she wasn’t satisfied with the impersonal tutelage of a device. She tried out one art school and enjoyed it for a time, then tried another, and then another.

She learned to sit for hours at a time in front of an easel—planning, sketching, painting—sometimes taking months to produce a finished artwork.  

This varied exposure to mentors inevitably shaped and inspired her. Armed with a deeper understanding of the creative process, this girl can lock herself in her bedroom for weeks undertaking self-directed art projects.

At one point, her older brother, in the STEAM program at his high school, began to question this behaviour, “What’s the point in spending all that time on a piece of art when you have image generators?” He proceeded to open his laptop, bringing up said generator, playfully keying in a nonsensical yet precise prompt. We looked at the generated image with amusement. But I came to my daughter’s defense: “If that’s the case, we’re all doomed. AI can generate art, writing, and code.”

The exchange inspired me to assign my daughter an essay topic (she was in seventh grade at the time and homeschooled): why is human-made art more valuable than AI-made art? She ruminated on the matter, we dialogued, and her answer became a 1000-word paper. 

Of course, my point was to say—whatever you’re doing, children, keep at it.  

AI conversations saturate the web, invoking mixed reactions. I compare the advancing technology to an eclipse whose encroaching shadow instigates both fear and fascination. In the face of the eclipse, I note its path, read up on when shadow will fall, when sky and earth will look remarkably strange—and usher the children to a place where the phenomenon can be appreciated from a safe distance. I remind the children not to fix their gaze too intently on it or else their vision be harmed—that is, being too “AI-happy,” turning to it without any self-restraint, unaware of the long-term detrimental effects of doing so.   

How else do I steer my children’s aspirations in this age of AI?

Encourage them to harness its sophisticated powers yet continue to put their well-placed hope in the ambitions they’ve set their hearts on. No, it is not a fruitless task just because a robot can do it.  

Remind them that the time-honoured practice of relentless human effort is never something to be undervalued or overlooked.

“…because the worth of a piece of art is often reflected in how much time artists put into it,” writes my daughter in her essay.  

With the right posture, the children ought to marvel at an eclipse, a spectacular sight. But sunlight shall appear again, and so this striking transformation of the landscape is welcomed.  

For my children, AI may seem to eclipse their burgeoning abilities, until their gaze is directed at the taken-for-granted view that is accessible to them every day—their personal passion, their impulse to create, their bent on bringing order and beauty into their worlds, their sheer pleasure of seeing a work through—whatever the expression (even if it involves struggle or—because it involves struggle).

However exceptionally the machines advance, these inner longings remain as constant as the sun, having been formed and knitted into their existence by a God who himself takes pleasure in creating, ordering, and beautifying:

“In the beginning, God created….”

“And God saw that the light was good…”

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….”

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

(Gen. 1:1, 4, 26; 2:15)

For this reason, my children needn’t worry that these human acts and attitudes will ever become irrelevant. Effortlessness and idleness are not part of the divinely created order.

“The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.” Proverbs 21:25

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” Ecclesiastes 9:10

Sure, some computer keystrokes can generate an impressive portrait, poem, or program. But the Christian worldview offers an assurance: that the instinct to engage and persist in ordinary work—imprinting on it our spirit, our wonder, our unique interactions with and experiences of the world around us—reflects a divine reality that is and will remain undeniable and abiding.