Raise a child, not a god: Why AI should grow up like we do

When Alan Turing imagined artificial intelligence, he didn't picture a finished adult mind striding out of a lab.

- ANNA MAE YU LAMENTILLO

He proposed "child machines"—modest systems that learn through experience, guidance, and a bit of luck. It's a humane idea from the century's sharpest logician: don't build a genius; raise one.

We've tried the opposite. We mint "adult" AIs—pretrained on oceans of text, festooned with benchmark medals—and act shocked when they hallucinate, bluff, or break under pressure. The child-machine lens explains the failure and points to a fix. Children don't absorb a static library; they learn by trying, erring, and being steered. They practice before they theorize. They grow inside communities with norms and boundaries. Our systems need the same arc.