AI: Atomizing the Family

AI is splitting the nuclear family. As children and parents fixate on screens, a myriad of encrypted algorithms forcibly separate the household. Yet, the content our children are exposed to is unknown to parents, unknown to governments, and unknown to developers. Here’s a way to regain control.

Family

At the heart of society is the family. Whether it’s our personalities or genetics, politics or traumas, the patterns of our lives are created at home. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles hold immense societal power, responsible for raising those on whom our collective future depends - our children.

The role of family is innate, as we are neurologically hardwired to prioritize genealogy. Our visceral need to value our own means that even the most well-intentioned parents - from the Kennedys to the Clintons - will compromise meritocratic ideals to give their children an advantage.

Family favor has survived all regime changes, over all periods, across all regions. And yet, the authority of the family unit has fluctuated with socio-economic developments. Who bears the ultimate responsibility for children - the parent or the state - is a cornerstone debate behind humanity’s progress.

Until now.

Despite today’s AI hysteria, little is said about its impact on family. Instead, AI has been silently introduced into every home, with children as young as 8 exposed to ~5 hours of algorithmic influence daily. As anxiety, depression, and suicide in children rises, and parents become increasingly exasperated, it is worth asking:

What is AI doing to my family?

The Nuclear Family

For over a million years - the prehistoric era, Mesopotamia, and Medieval Europe - extended families reigned supreme. Their role was to function as economic and social units for survival, cooperation, and child-rearing.

Then came the industrial revolution.

Requiring a more mobile workforce, the burgeoning Western economy changed the global order. Factory jobs demanded relocation to urban areas, where housing was expensive, sparse, and small. With the promise of higher wages, many made the move, substituting familial cooperation for financial independence.

As wealth was distributed and affluence increased, higher pay and fewer dependents allowed parents to be more dedicated in raising their children. Ageing populations were sent to the serviceable sideline and elite education, big houses, travel, and fashion became symbols of good parenting.

The family became small, wealthy, and consumer focused. To support economic growth, the family was nuclearized.

The Atomic Family

As the fourth industrial revolution beckons, the role of the family is changing once again.

Though AI’s promise seems limitless, today’s AI reality is encapsulated by a simple truth - the market cap of the top 10 social media companies represents 24% of the US economy. Economically, social media is the driving force of the AI revolution. To serve economic growth, the modern family unit has evolved to accommodate social networks.

The new family spends time online, creating, and consuming content. Outside of office and school hours, the average adult and teenager now respectively spend 2.2 hours, and 4.8 hours on social media daily. During this time, a US family of 4 uses an average of 190 GB online - consuming the equivalent of 80 copies of War and Peace monthly.

With screens and devices separating families, the relationship between parent and child weakens.

Parents, who once provided a home for their children that was safe from the outside world - whether that be bullies, traffickers, or groomers - are now prevented from offering this familial protection. Through screens, the outside world is forcibly allowed into the home, and parents are encrypted out of overseeing the direct relationships forming under their roof.

At school, children are taught social development through avatars, gamified profiles and digitized interactions. They learn that being engaged means being online: having friends means having followers. As popularity demands prioritizing screens over real life, children come to interact with the world through the mediation of AI-powered screens. Children, who once reflected their parents, now reflect the internet.

The family is becoming individualized and content centric. To support economic growth, the family is atomizing.

AI Fission

Believing that atomization will benefit society, we have allowed a new form of authority into our homes, schools, and playgrounds. All on the promise - not the proof - that the technology can operate within the limits of democratic values.

Only, it cannot.

Instagram, Snap, X, YouTube, and TikTok are private interfaces between users, organizations, and states. Platforms allow the highest bidder, whether Coca-Cola or Iran, to influence users. As platforms do not hold the technological capability to manage toxicity, attribute propaganda sources, or identify and ban illegal content, protecting users and society itself is impossible.

Governments, who funded the economic promise of AI by surrendering their power to platforms assumed Big Tech could be controlled. They could not see that even Big Tech itself does not have control. The technology is so limited that the content our children are exposed to online is unknown to us, unknown to governments, and unknown to developers.

Under the new regime, no institution can protect children - not the guardians, and not the government. Children's minds have become an open-access resource to be mined by algorithms for monetization. Those such as Zuckerberg and Gates, who understand the true dangers, famously limit their children from social media.

Social media has dismantled both the family and the capacity of government.

Market Failure

Culture wars, misinformation, disinformation, grooming, anxiety, and depression are rising. Numbers of children committing suicide from their online experiences are rising. As we recognize the existential threat social media poses, billions are invested as a matter of national security. Yet, no viable solutions have emerged.

The problem is unsolvable until we address the root cause - the atomization of the family.

Family is the fabric of society. Pull at its threads too hard, and it unravels the garment of statehood, refashioning our future.

It is a market failure that institutions - platforms, regulators, and think tanks - are primarily concerned with the rights of the individual. Individualization blinds us from seeing the destruction of core societal bonds occurring before our very eyes. And so despite all the pain and panic, we are still collectively questioning how to improve social media platform’s ability to shape our children - instead of whether they should be shaping our children at all.

Before we resign ourselves to a Plato-esque world where our children are taken and groomed by a techno-state, it is imperative we look for an alternative.

Digital Health Score

Absent the societal will to dissolve social media entirely, we must make platforms safer. The way to do this is by designing tools that reconnect the family unit.

Rating systems are the easiest method. Typically, when ambiguity exists, rating systems like film ratings, energy scores, food labels, credit scores, or school rankings, are created to give people agency to make their own informed decisions.

We can build a rating system for online content.

In this example, a rating system would reveal how online content is likely to impact a user’s mental health. A score of 1 would show that a user is exposed to emotionally balanced content; 5 that a user is likely to be caught in a negativity spiral. This is the basic information needed to build trust and safety.

With over 63 million parents in the US alone, decentralizing the management of online harms is the most efficient means of protection. Creating simple, clear and concise mechanisms to show the lay of the land allows parents to look after their children. Moreover, it exposes the collective overview needed to regain political and social stability.

For AI to be positive, we must return the responsibility for the care of children to families.

At Aestora, we have built a Digital Health Score rating system. Though our goal is to eventually build for parents, we are currently working with students at Imperial, Francis Crick, UCL, and LSE to test and refine our system. We are looking for more people to test our beta product - if you would like to join please sign up here! To help us bring this to life, please reach out at info@aestora.com