At the time of writing, the sentiment in this post is that this is a terrible idea, and that kids need human tutors. The latter is 100% true. But also, you might want to know some facts about the state of children's literacy in the US (Ello is a math and reading tutor):

1. We're in crisis. As of 2025, 40% of fourth graders are reading below basic levels [1].

2. There's a massive teacher shortage. 2025 US state data shows ~400k teacher positions either unfilled or underqualified [2] – over 10% of the workforce.

3. Bloom's 2-sigma shows that 1-1 tutoring delivers outcomes at the 90th percentile of classroom teaching. Early research is finding that AI can deliver some of this benefit [3].

4. This can't always be solved by parents: 54% of US adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level, and 20% are below 5th-grade level [4].

At Ello, I heard stories of children figuring out they were behind at school, and when given the app, they holed themselves up in their room and used it to get themselves caught up. And then they could read! Can you imagine falling behind at this critical juncture, and being stuck illiterate while your friends grow past you? We're currently setting kids up for lives of shame and deprivation.

My take: this really is a life-changing technology. And we need this problem solved. Democracy doesn't function without an educated populace.

[1] https://www.nagb.gov/news-and-events/news-releases/2025/nati...

[2] https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/overview-teacher...

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X2...

[4] https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-liter...

I primarily think that a a kid who won't pick books is a failure of the family of not noticing their interests.

When i noticed my oldest 3 yr old was obsessed about cars, i bought him a car encyclopedia. He probably could not read most words or did not understand them. But pretty soon he was telling me about car models that i did not even recognize myself.

And as i saw interests, i kept feeding them.

My biggest struggle now is to actually keep books away from them at key times (morning routine, etc) , or keeping bad books (think cynical like My Weird School Daze, etc; or books that openly demean adults or parents) away from them

Start small. Graphical novels, mostly drawings, and continue to buil on that. It can be done. Rome wasn't built on a day.

At some point when they hit 5 yrs old, Grok / OpenAI are great tools to find good series appropriate to their reading level. Before that it can be vibed. Feed the addiction, buy whatever they like.

At some point, you need to watch out for cynical/nasty series. In fact, all of the books we purchase are ranked against peers they have read in the past, or those we know to actively avoid buying due to cynicism, sarcasm, or open disdain towards adults (Wimpy Kid).

At some point around age 9,you will need to decide if violence and some adult themes, are tolerable (Dragon Wing series).

This iterative rocess also works really well for foreign language learning (reinforcing via reading mostly), by leveraging localized RPG video games.

With all that said, notice that I've focused on reading skills.

I don't know how i'd go about replicating this iterative path on other skills like math, mechanical, or electrical engineering learning. That's where I think a busy parent will need to find AI as the solution.

Are your devices likely something that they would have fun with and choose to engage with or is it likely to be ignored unless adults use some kind of persuasion to have them use it? Is it cool with a child using it for a bit and then not using it for a few months and then wandering back to it? How far up into math does it go compared to what an a randomly sampled adult could actually do mathwise? Also for reading, are you using phonics or whole word sighting? For math, to what extent is it screen manipulatives versus manipulations of digits? Also, do you have provision for an older child to start learning this stuff so the basics need not be at a 4 year old presentation level, but the concepts still need to be covered?

In Sudbury schools, the typical age of self-taught reading is 7-9 though it can range from 4 to 12. Useful arithmetic usually seems to happen much earlier than reading though reading tends to get completed by the children on their own while arithmetic does not advance further than the needs of money exchange without special effort. In the long run, Sudbury students have no problem with college level material, including mathematics, but it could be nice to have something that eases the white knuckling if it does not undermine the child's self-directedness.

In fact, this could be one of the most beneficial uses of AI for society yet... private tutors of the level that the mega-rich always had, now for all kids everywhere! This gives me real hope for the future generations of humanity.

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  Ello has specific instructions to talk to the child about the learning activities.

There really needs to be more published technical detail on what safety systems you have in this because if trillion dollar companies can't stop AI going off the rails, I feel you're overselling the safety systems you've built.

Reading further it then goes beyond "learning activities" into LLM generated content.

  Some (not all) of Ello’s stories and illustrations have been created with AI technology, and AI allows children to create their own stories and experiences through guided and safe scaffolding.

What makes it worse is that AI is addictive and children naturally gravitate towards the addictive.

I suggest Joe the Camel as a mascot that sold nicotine to teenagers.

To all the detractors, I would like to point out that your opinion of kids needing a good human teacher is overfit to your experience of having had some of those growing up.

In third world countries like mine, we grow up with absolutely unqualified teachers who were unable to muster anything but a learnt-by-rote understanding of key concepts.

In hindsight these were just desperate adults trying to eek a living for themselves and their family in an impoverished country and resorting to any means by which to do it: gaming the school system or calling in favours to join school faculty. I bear them no ill will. But we as kids were much worse off for it.

I can assure you that no matter what concerns you may have about hallucinations in LLMs, I can bet everything I have that a reasonably modern model (and I'm thinking in the range of gemini-flash, not Fable) in a well designed harness geared towards tutoring would handily and repeatedly outperform every single teacher I had all throughout my schooling.

Don't let a quest for the perfect ruin what is likely already way better than status quo.

Can you elaborate on what the experience is like for the child? How does this system help them learn? The article focuses on optimizing for interactivity and engagement, but doesn't discuss how this system challenges or facilitates learning and why AI needs to be the solution.

The more I think about it, the more I want to ban your entire business model

Giving children extended time in front of screens will lead to Idiocracy.

It's a giant No from me.

If it's really true that a teacher's job nowadays is to constantly try to cater to the whims of easily bored and distracted kids, then I pity both the teachers and the kids.

Let's not expose them to AI brainrot now too.

Kids learn most from peers and structure up until they are 10. Social queues and behaviors not taught by screens, AI, or your parents.

Most students are pretty homogeneous in learning at that stage

Ignore the haters, AI accelerated education is so obviously a gigantic win for everyone. (And massively levels the playing field.)

If anything, an app should be made where a child learns to correct an LLM's mistakes and learn that it isn't trustworthy.

Actually, better, don't put an LLM in front of children. At all.

EDIT: If a use case is for children who can't afford good education, then use an LLM to make educational materials for children, review them, and make them available for free. After all, the contents are ripped off from human educators anyway.

IMO, tutoring is for when a kid is behind in curriculum and you don't see that until late grade school, if not middle school.

Children do not need screens to learn. I didn't need one when I was a kid, nor endless generations either needed it.

Why are we trying to push everything through an LLM?

I'm not sure they understand just how dystopian this sounds. God forbid the five year old mind wanders.

Stepping back, I can look at it somewhat objectively and see that there are both kids that need something like this and that it's probably a better solution to the "dumb" homework apps that the kids use for 20 mins a week at this age, but I don't think "Ello deprives 5 year olds of human contact" is the message you should be putting out into the world.

"AI is also going to be an integral part shaping how this generation of kids learn to read and think"

You think they will be even dumber/helpless without gudance from the 'net than Gen Z and A?

France have already moved to ban screens from places with children under 3. Other countries (including UK, Australia) are also setting strong limits on screen use for kids under 5. This is for a reason.

Products like this are driven by business interests, not good will. Good parenting with screen control is the best way to have a fulfilled and happy child. Protect your children, keep them away from screens while they are under 5 and guide them carefully when you introduce screen time.

I've been very impressed with response speed, intonation, and naturalness to the voice. I argue it might be too natural with some of it's pausing and saying "ummm" and other filler words to the point it might be disingenuous but that's neither here nor there.

People seem to have the basic premise: why not just get an educated adult, or good teacher, or personal human tutor for the kids which is so much better?

Well there's a billion parents who cannot ever afford that...

So I'd just like to note that HN is absolutely 100% not the kind of community that you need to impress or sell to. Best of luck.

It's hard to overstate the harm of the system you are building. Please understand, there is no way this idea is salvageable or any tweaks or safeguards can make it safe. If you've actually tested this on real children you've already risked extreme harm.

Please, stop.

AI is great for learning, but you know what’s most important thing for children as part of their learning? Presence of a parent.

Why not make this an assistant for parent & child learning session, where you can use it as encyclopedia lookup or permutation / generation of an exercise or even cheatsheet / checklist for your learning session?

I think there’s huge value in being able to have such thing, where you don’t have to pull out your phone when doing something with your child and instead you could ask that assistant for a lookup online, but putting child in front of a screen and putting it’s self-development in a hands of AI is just irresponsible, lazy and quite frankly dangerous

Look where smartphones not being used in the classroom got us. Imagine how this would harm us.

Not every child has the benefit of involved adults in their life, but I'd rather solve that problem than think AI is going to fix this. You're proposing taking one of the most vulnerable populations in the country and manipulating them (intentionally or not) to be reliant on one of the most exploitative technologies that has ever existed. I don't think your intent is evil, but the product here is evil. Remember that the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

These poor kids don't stand a chance... to not learn something!