Raising Kids in the AI Era: Dad First, Entrepreneur Second

**James Dooley:** Hi, today I’m joined with Dan Petrovic, who is known by me as being a dad entrepreneur. As a father to a daughter who is 12 years old and an entrepreneur, life can be tough balancing entrepreneurship and being a dad. In the AI era, I’m going to jump straight in. Artificial intelligence is around us. When you’re raising your daughter in five, 10 or 20 years for her career, is there anything you’re doing differently now AI is upon us? **Dan Petrovic:** I love the question. I love the whole topic because I’m dad number one and then an SEO number two. When my daughter was born in 2013, I retired. I was just dad. Full-time dad. We were playing, doing things. It’s been joy and commitment to raising a capable human being that’s up to speed with technology. A lot of things took me by surprise. She has shown contempt for AI very early on without my influence. I’m pro AI and she is artistic. There are paintings all over my walls. She sings in the shower. She paints wonderful things. Every time I try to encourage her to use AI creatively, she pushes back. She says it’s cheap and cheesy and there’s no value in that. I spoke to other children and they can tell when something is AI generated. They think it’s rubbish. I did not expect that. Kids value original art and original thought. They are AI natives. Google is ancient history for them. They know knowledge is accessible on demand. That changes things. As a dad, I see a potential problem. A capable model like Gemini or GPT needs some world knowledge to use tools properly. Kids also need world knowledge to use AI tools appropriately. My objective has been to foster creativity but also broaden her knowledge enough so she can drive the tools at her disposal. There’s a mindset now that says I don’t need to learn that, I’ll learn it when I need it. It doesn’t work like that. You don’t know what you don’t know. I’ve been steering her towards broad knowledge so she does not develop gaps. She prefers to create herself rather than use AI for story writing or creative work. In the early days we did coding, science, microscopes. We have a cryogenic dewar in the garage. We’ve played with neodymium magnets, superconductors, liquid nitrogen, levitation experiments. We’ve done a lot of hands-on science. But kids find their own interests. You cannot force it. My strategy is exposure and light guidance. Long term, I have no intention of pushing her in a specific direction. I want her to explore what she’s passionate about. If you’re going to be good at something, you need to be expert level. The age of mediocrity is over. The divide between capable people and unmotivated people will widen. In 10 years, we’ll have people driving AI at a very high level and others who fall behind. Some industries are safer. You’re not going to have AI fully replacing nursing or personal care anytime soon. There are areas where human presence still matters. But there are industries that are not safe. So we’ll see AI natives outcompete people who fear technology. For me it’s observe, expose, teach, and let her find her sweet spot. Once she finds it, I want her to go deep and become exceptional. **James Dooley:** I love that you said you are dad first and entrepreneur second. I also love the idea that she’ll find her own feet and double down on what she loves. I see on social media you building things together and I find it fascinating. That was a video with Dan Petrovic on being a father as well as a businessman. If you want to dig deeper, there are other videos about the future of AI SEO and how to influence LLMs. Dan Petrovic was talking about agentic search back in 2013, so he has always been ahead of the game. This one was about being a dad entrepreneur. I’m a father of three myself and I’m 100% a dad first. I wanted to ask him how he’s handling parenting in the AI era. Dan Petrovic, it’s been an absolute pleasure. **Dan Petrovic:** Thank you.