Critical thinking for kids in the age of AI
Teach your kids to think before they believe.
Barnaby is a children's program that builds the mental habits kids need to navigate a world of deepfakes, AI-generated content, and information designed to manipulate.
Launching soon. Be the first to know.
"I can teach her to look both ways before crossing the street. I can't manually review every piece of information that enters her mind for the next decade."
She needs to be able to do that herself.
The problem
We're preparing kids for a world that no longer exists.
School teaches them to find information. But information isn't scarce anymore. It's infinite, and a growing percentage of it is designed to deceive.
We tell them to "be careful online" without teaching them what careful looks like when the threat is a perfectly rendered video of someone saying words they never said.
What kids are facing
AI-generated videos indistinguishable from reality
Algorithms optimized to shape belief, not inform
Propaganda that looks like news
Peers who share first, verify never
A job market being rewritten by automation
See it for yourself
Two years. That's all it took.
On the left: AI-generated video from 2023. On the right: the same prompt in 2025.
Now imagine 2027. Your kids need to be ready.
What Barnaby teaches
Four skills that become mental habits
01
Question the source
Where did this come from? Who made it? What do they want me to think?
02
Notice the feeling
Am I believing this because it's true, or because it made me feel something?
03
Spot the seams
What are the tells of AI-generated content? What doesn't add up?
04
Hold uncertainty
It's okay to say 'I don't know yet' instead of picking a side.
How it works
Stories, games, and family conversations
Barnaby is a curious bison who models healthy skepticism without cynicism. Through his adventures, kids learn to pause, question, and think—then bring those conversations to the dinner table with family discussion guides.
Ages 5-7
Foundational questioning, noticing feelings, basic source awareness through stories
Ages 8-10
Media literacy, fact-checking basics, recognizing persuasion in ads and content
Ages 11-14
AI literacy, deepfake detection, understanding algorithms and filter bubbles
Why we're building this
Last week, my son showed me a video of a political figure saying something horrific. It was fake. AI-generated. I had to watch it 3+ times before I was sure.
He'd already sent it to his friends.
I've spent 25 years building technology products, and I've watched AI evolve from a party trick to something that's reshaping every industry. But watching my kids try to navigate a world where the line between real and fake has dissolved? That's what made this personal.
Barnaby is the tool I wish existed. So we're building it.
Be part of the launch.
We're launching soon and want you to be part of it. Sign up for early access and help shape what Barnaby becomes.
No spam. Just launch updates and early access.