The classic Chinese parenting playbook won’t survive the AI age

Like many Hong Kong parents, Ms Ng spends her weekend shuttling her eight-year-old son from one tutoring class to another across the city, hoping to strengthen his academic performance. Across Chinese communities worldwide, parents travel the same journey, investing time, money and energy. But as we enter the age of artificial intelligence, we must ask if such striving is still worthwhile. Industry leaders predict that AI will replace swathes of white-collar work in finance, law, accounting and computing, whereas blue-collar jobs such as plumbing, electrical or construction work remain largely irreplaceable. The reasons for this may not be what you think. Psychologist David Geary distinguished between two classes of cognitive ability. Biologically primary abilities such as speaking, counting and basic social understanding develop in all human children with minimal formal instruction. Biologically secondary abilities such as reading, writing and formal mathematics require sustained learning and only develop in specific cultural contexts. Richard Dawkins’ concept of the extended phenotype adds another layer. Dawkins argued that genes also express themselves beyond the organism, through its effects on the environment. For humans, our culture and technology are our extended phenotype. What we lack biologically, we make up for through accumulated knowledge, cultural products and technological advancement. In this framework, while AI represents the culmination of our extended phenotype and will replace us at our secondary abilities, it cannot replace our primary attributes. Physical presence, face-to-face communication and the tangible performance of a job that requires a body in a specific place at a specific time cannot be faked or replaced. The distinction between replaceable and irreplaceable work is not physical vs cognitive, but whether the work involves the physical person. Large-language models can generate a legal brief but cannot stand in a courtroom and argue with conviction. Music AI agents can write and sing but cannot perform on stage with the charisma of a live musician. A medical algorithm can diagnose diseases and its embodied AI can perform surgeries, but they cannot hold a patient’s hand while discussing the diagnosis or working out a treatment plan. A plumber fixing the sink or a kindergarten teacher comforting a crying child cannot be replaced by AI. This principle extends to athletic abilities, physical prowess, motor agility and any talent that involves the body, such as playing an instrument, dribbling a basketball or rolling a pencil across the fingers. Similarly with social interaction: in a post-AI world, the ability to connect with others in person, to look someone in the eye and communicate effectively, will define success more than any written products. These are all primary abilities, grounded in the physical self. Elon Musk predicts that AI and robotics will produce goods and services in such abundance that humans will no longer need to work. What will humans do then? John Calhoun’s “Universe 25” experiment placed mice in an environment of total abundance. One discovery about the mice, which the researcher called “the beautiful ones”, was their exclusive focus on grooming, maintenance and physical presentation. If Musk’s prediction holds, human behaviour may follow a similar path. A post-AI world will reward not the accumulation of knowledge but the presence of a real person who can speak, connect, create and decide Evolutionary fitness, in the ultimate sense, is about bringing out the best and maximum of a species’ primary attributes. It means being physically and mentally viable, resisting diseases and stresses, handling crises, making sound decisions under pressure and bouncing back from defeat. In a post-AI world of plenty, these primary attributes will be the new currency. It’s not just about looking good. It’s about being the survivor of the physically fittest in the truest Darwinian sense. Our focus should shift from the acquisition and accumulation of knowledge per se to critical thinking, creative problem-solving, inquisitive questioning, curious inquiring and sound decision-making. These are primary mental faculties that define human cognition. They are what our ancestors used to navigate uncertain environments and will be what we use to navigate the post-AI world where machines handle the tasks of secondary abilities. So how should parents raise children for the post-AI age? Chinese parenting is known for being authoritarian, controlling and achievement-oriented, specifically oriented to academic achievement. Authoritarian and controlling parenting stifles creativity, autonomy and critical thinking. When children are constantly told what to do and how to do it, they rarely learn to question, imagine or decide for themselves. Its academic focus is mostly on secondary abilities. Memorising facts, mastering formulas and even learning to write in a particular style are all things AI can do faster and better. Instead, focusing on physical training, social development and higher-order cognitive abilities redirects, rightfully, Chinese priorities away from the extended phenotype, what humans have created, towards the physical person, who we are. Western parenting, which tends to be more authoritative than authoritarian, is more suited to the post-AI world. Research shows that authoritative and supportive parenting encourages autonomy, supports individual expression, and fosters creativity and critical thinking. Yet Western parenting can be permissive, lacking the structure and supervision that help children develop resilience and perseverance and discriminate against misinformation. It may also undervalue the physical rigour and discipline that come from structured training, whether in sports, music or other embodied skills. Shuttling an eight-year-old across tutoring centres may not be the best investment of parenting effort for a post-AI world that will reward not the accumulation of knowledge but the presence of a real person who can speak, connect, create and decide. Parenting should aim to cultivate primary abilities, raising children who are physically fit, socially skilled, creatively minded and critically thoughtful, while letting AI perfect the tasks that depend on our secondary abilities.

The classic Chinese parenting playbook won’t survive the AI age

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Controlling and achievement-oriented parenting stifles creativity, autonomy and critical thinking – qualities that will be needed more than ever

Controlling and achievement-oriented parenting stifles creativity, autonomy and critical thinking – qualities that will be needed more than ever