Part 1 of a 5-Part Series: Your Guide to Navigating AI’s Impact on Kids, Education, and the Future
Host Amanda Werner and guest Adrian Martinca dive into the challenges and opportunities of technology and AI in education. Adrian shares his personal journey from overcoming the digital divide to founding a nonprofit that empowers kids through access to technology. Together, they explore the impact of AI on children’s dreams, mental health, and the future of learning—emphasizing the importance of open conversations, values, and putting kids’ well-being and feelings at the center of the tech revolution.
- 0:00 – Introduction & Setting the Stage
Amanda introduces Adrian Martinca and frames the episode’s focus on AI, technology, and education. - 1:05 – Adrian’s Background
Adrian shares his journey from Slovakia to North America, his early experiences with technology, and his motivation to bridge the digital divide. - 3:12 – Founding Technology for the Future
Adrian discusses starting his nonprofit, giving away computers, and focusing on children’s dreams. - 4:20 – The Importance of Dreams
Exploring how technology can both empower and limit children’s aspirations. - 5:15 – AI as “Alien Intelligence”
Adrian introduces the concept of AI as “alien intelligence” and discusses its unpredictable impact. - 7:00 – Navigating AI’s Role in Society
Amanda and Adrian talk about the challenges of integrating AI into daily life, education, and the workforce. - 10:00 – The Three Phases of Technological Change
Adrian outlines the “enchantment,” “pivot,” and “purpose economy” phases of tech evolution. - 13:00 – Screen Time & Mental Health
Discussion of rising screen time among children, its effects on family dynamics, and the need for open conversations. - 16:00 – The Role of Parents and Educators
Emphasizing the importance of values, safe spaces, and proactive dialogue in guiding children through the tech era. - 20:00 – Looking Forward
Amanda and Adrian reflect on the need for hope, community, and a focus on well-being as technology continues to evolve.
Key Takeaways
- Technology should be a pathway to dreams, not a barrier.
- AI’s rapid evolution requires new approaches to education, parenting, and mental health.
- Open, honest dialogue and a focus on children’s well-being are essential for a positive future.
Resources
Transcript
Amanda: [00:00:00] What if everything we’re doing to prepare our children for the future is based on a world that’s already disappearing in this conversation? Technologists and visionary Adrian Marza challenges us to stop seeing AI as just another tool and start recognizing it for what it really is. An alien intelligence reshaping our world, whether we are ready or not.
But this isn’t just another doom and gloom warning about technology. Instead, Adrian offers something rarely found in conversations about AI and education. Genuine hope, grounded in radical honesty. This five part series will take you on a journey from understanding why our current approach is failing.
To discovering a concrete vision for what comes next, you’ll learn [00:01:00] why the answer isn’t fighting our children over screen time or desperately trying to teach them skills that AI will master before they even graduate. Instead, Adrian reveals that the solution lies in something beautifully simple, yet profound.
Reclaiming time for real human connection and putting our children’s dreams and feelings at the center of everything we do. If you’re a parent struggling with your child’s relationship with technology, an educator feeling burned out by a system that no longer makes sense, or anyone who senses that we’re at a.
Critical pivot point, but doesn’t know which way to turn. This conversation will give you both clarity and actionable steps for a hopeful future because the future isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we create together, and it starts by asking one simple question, [00:02:00] how do our children feel?
Welcome to the Empower Students Now podcast. A podcast about equity, neurodiversity, mindfulness, and student engagement. There’s a lot that needs to change in our education system. The good news is teachers have the power to make these changes now.
Hello everyone. I have a special guest on the podcast today, Adrian Marza. Let me tell you a little bit about this amazing person. He is the founder of Technology for the Future. And the Open Doors movement. He’s been working at the intersection of technology and childhood dreams for decades. He started his own tech company at 13 and has helped over 100,000 kids delivering [00:03:00] millions in technology to children and schools who need it.
His mission centers on amplifying children’s voices, protecting their dreams, and ensuring that AI serves humanity rather than exploiting it. He’s the author of a book called Dream Guide and Advocates for putting. Dreams first, and encouraging honest conversations between parents and children at this critical moment of AI adoption and rising tech anxiety.
I think you’re going to really enjoy this conversation. Adrian has many, many insightful ideas about how we can make the future better for our children and for us and the world, and how we can harness the power of AI for our. Benefit. So Adrian, could you just start us off by just telling us a little bit about your background in tech and, [00:04:00] and just working with kids and just Yeah, tell us about yourself.
Adrian: Well, hey guys, thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure. And so my name’s Adrian Martina and I’ve been, I started my first tech company when I was 13 years old. I think that the main difference in the relationship I have to technology. Compared to other people, I think is, is that most people get into technology because they love technology.
I got into technology because I hate it in a way because it was so I, I originally came from Slovakia, then moved to Canada, then to United States, but technology essentially became an oppress. Right, so, so as we all know that if you don’t, if you aren’t good at it or don’t know how to master technology tools or technology resources, whatever, then you are.
Away from your opportunity, you kind of get distanced. And that’s what I got into technology. ’cause I saw [00:05:00] it affect my parents’ business. I saw it affect my friends and even people in the community where technology. So I, where technology was the divide itself and I wanted, I didn’t want that. I wanted to experience a sense of freedom and, and a sense of hope from having technology and being able to do whatever it is that.
I dreamed of doing, and that’s kind of the foundation of how my relationship with tech got started.
Amanda: Yeah. So, and you’ve done a lot of work to bridge the divide and to. Overcome how oppressive and divisive technology can be. Could you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. Because I was really impressed with
Adrian: Oh, thank you.
Amanda: The kind of nonprofit work and charity work that you’ve done. Um, yeah. And just like, how did you, I’m so curious, ’cause you said you’re from Slovakia, then you moved to Canada, and now you’re in the [00:06:00] US and I don’t know, I’m like so curious about. Um, some of the other projects you’ve been involved with.
Adrian: So in middle school, high school, I started a computer company to help both like family, my family and small businesses and stuff have access.
And in that, one of my customers actually, she was like, Adrian, you’re selling your stuff so, so, so cheap. Because to me, I, I didn’t care about money. I was a kid. I just wanted people. Computers that were getting sold for like 250, $300 on the internet. I was selling for a hundred dollars. ’cause I didn’t care.
I just wanted people to have access. So she’s like, why don’t you start a foundation when you’re doing it so cheap? Like you could probably easily just raise money and give computers away. And she kind of sparked the idea. And I started technology for the Future, which is now. It was in 2016, so nine years ago, almost 10 years ago.
And we’ve been blessed enough to give over 20,000 computers away, and we’ve [00:07:00] impacted over a hundred thousand kids. But even then, the idea was, was we went around and to ask kids like what their dream is and how technology can help ’em achieve that dream, and we’d surprise ’em with a free computer. And the idea along that entire journey was really to put dreams first.
Because yes, the divide existed, but the thing that. Affected my heart the most. Seeing the divide was that the divide wasn’t between kids and opportunity. It was between kids and their dreams. And not only did the divide make dreams sometimes out of reach, but it also made them wonder what dreams they can have or can afford or can get access to, which really hurt me ’cause I didn’t want technology to be that like, you know, we moved to America ’cause America is.
The land of freedom and opportunity, and that didn’t seem like it was aligned, so, so I really started, you know, a heavy push towards not only putting dreams first, but also looking for [00:08:00] partners, looking for organizations where we could talk about dreams, celebrate dreams, and then reward those dreams with computers where the computer was the pathway rather than the destination.
Amanda: Well, I, I love all of that and I just think that with ai it’s just changed things completely. And kids, yeah. And adults are feeling so disillusioned and feeling like adults are causing calling kids apathetic and that they can’t think anymore. And kids are, you know, jobs, the job market is just so confusing and unpredictable and kids aren’t sure.
What their role in all of this is. It’s, it’s really confusing. And I guess that brings me to my next question ’cause I really, I think that your perspective on AI and how it’s influencing people and like kids’ dreams and things is just really interesting and it’s a helpful perspective. So could you tell us a little bit [00:09:00] about your view on AI and um, yeah, I’d love to hear about that.
Adrian: So, as a. As a technologies, as a technologist, the position of my perspective is very user slash person oriented, like people oriented from that perspective, like some argue you can’t use this comparison, but it is very well aligned to the truth of subjectively what AI is and, and I call it not artificial intelligence, but I call it alien intelligence or an alien immigrant.
Because AI as a system is so capable and growing as its own thing, right? It’s growing, evolving. I mean, even companies who have used it, for example now, they used it to create video, like video models. Actual independent companies. Now, SOA two came out and all of a sudden overnight all these startups just vanished because [00:10:00] OpenAI just took away their entire advantage, right?
By them doing their central ai, their central alien can now create videos by itself. ’cause it learned how, and that’s where I, where I think the perspective of seeing AI as an alien. Not only puts us in the correct perspective, but it allows us to better understand how we should position ourselves not only as parents, but also educators to, to be able to see the future that’s more, that has better parameters on like what kind of future we’re heading towards.
For example, in work, if you were gonna tell yourself that I’m gonna use this alien to answer my emails. You now all of a sudden get a little bit uncomfortable. You know, you’re not like, oh, I’m just using this artificial intelligence to answer my emails. That doesn’t feel scary at all, but using this alien to answer my emails.
Now you’re like, well, what if it, you’ll even start thinking like, what if it takes my job? Or [00:11:00] what if you know, something happens and there have been scenarios. Where, where they’ve done tests where, where they let an AI model do that and when it found out that it was supposed to replace, it was gonna get replaced or shut down, it actually blackmailed people in the company based on the emails that it read.
So it was, you know, it did create a mind of its own, but. I think like a large aspect of what AI is, which also goes into the alien perspective, is that you can’t say that an alien is good or bad. It’s about how we’re choosing to use it, right? And how we’re choosing to navigate the future. Right? So if we’re not choosing to take a path where we’re.
Approaching it as such and and understanding that we have to have a foundation to assimilate it. We have to have safeguards for our kids, for us to know what kind of relationship they’re building with this alien and they’re building with themselves [00:12:00] in turn. And we as parents. In a way allow that, you know, then, then we have to take a step back and reevaluate like, what does this relationship look like?
What are our values? What are the values we want for our kids? And then making sure that, that this alien being, as we step forward, you know, does follow these kinds of values that we two share for our kids.
Amanda: Yeah, I love that. And just sort of constantly asking yourself and your students and your children, you know, parents, like, how, how do, how dependent do I wanna be on with this?
Yeah. And that’s something that I’ve grappled with in all these episodes is like I, I’ve dabbled in having it write blog posts for me and then realized afterwards. I don’t wanna be dependent on this to do this. And actually that’s like way more work for me to, to try and figure out, well, what do I have to say about this [00:13:00] beyond this alien?
I love the idea of an alien and thinking of it as an alien because that is truly what it is. Like AI companies have even admitted and said they don’t really understand how their machines work. Like
Adrian: Yeah. Because it’s so huge. Yeah. It’s so huge.
Amanda: Yeah. And it’s just doing all these unpredictable things and they’re putting safeguards on that aren’t even working and that, that people and the alien are bypassing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. I just, I really love that. Um, and I think that teachers can take this into their classroom too. Just this whole concept that you’re talking about. And even with, with their kids, you know, as parents. So I, yeah, I’m, and I know you’ve been in schools and you’ve worked with teachers and, um, and students before, and I’m just curious like.
How do you think this alien, like right now is impacting, I mean, that’s what all these episodes that I’ve just done in this series are about. Mm-hmm. Like, how are they, IM, but this is [00:14:00] just my, these are just my stories and my perspective. Yeah. But like, overall, like, how do you see it impacting this, impacting our society and like our education system?
Like, I’m, I’m curious about your perspectives on that. Like how is AI impacting. Without
Adrian: the doom and gloom, right? Like,
Amanda: well, yeah, I, I guess, yeah, like this alien and like maybe you could talk about how it could be helpful but also harmful. I know it’s both and it’s nuanced,
Adrian: but, well, it’s a three stage, it’s a three stage process.
Uhhuh, so, so sorry, I’m just thinking to put it in simple terms. Yeah. Because a lot of people compare this to the industrial Revolution, but my argument. Is that you, you really can’t because it’s the first time the technology is living, right? So you can’t say it’s, oh, just like any other tool because it’s not adding, like it is adding to our efficiency [00:15:00] currently, but it is its own thing.
So it’s actually taking away from the burden that we have to carry in. Creating efficiency as a byproduct. Right. So a, this alien is creating efficiency as a byproduct of taking the burden away by it’s doing it and normal. Normally in industrialization, the humans became more efficient at handling the burden, but humans were still in charge of it.
In this case, there’s a large aspect of examples, kind of like, kind of like you referenced, where that burden is taking away so sad that leaves us in. Comparatively the same thing as a, as a pivot. Like when you pivot in a company, right? So you’re going from being used to doing one thing transitioning into another, but while that’s only two things, there’s still the transitionary period itself that is actually incredibly crucial.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the
Adrian: transition is the doom and gloom. The outcome is not right, like the the out outcome, like [00:16:00] after the doom and gloom transition, which is why I have been. Really, um, passionate about this conversation because I do believe that, I do believe that being able to see the outcome, we can be proactive and it is necessary where we come, where we come to understand that that really the doom and the pieces of the doom and gloom, such as it’s alleviating us from a lot of occupational things and or educational hardships.
Where, where people, where kids can learn more freely and can explore ideas more freely, but at the same time, it affecting the economy itself because there’s less and less cash going to people and instead it’s going to the AI companies. Right? So it’s not entering the hands of the people as, as easily than what we have to look at is, is like, okay, well if.
We’re collectively creating this reality where, where we [00:17:00] are going to be free from having to work per se, or having to do a lot of things until we, and that’s the transition, right? Like until we figure out what new things we’re going to do. As a, as a side note for imagining what that could be. For example, the gentleman that that created Khan Academy, he talks about the dream economy.
Right, which is like, if we’re no longer responsible for managing the material economy, making things and doing things, then that means we have more time to focus on each other as people, to focus on purpose, to focus on our kids and family. And in a funny, funny way, it’s almost like COVID minus all the craziness, right?
But if, if that is where we’re heading, then that means that, that right now, one of the most important things. Both educationally as well as from a perspective of career is the ability for us to [00:18:00] recenter around what matters most, which fundamentally is how our relationship with our children a and with each other be what values.
Those relationships should have, and we all collectively want to have, which is us coming back, what the purpose of what it means to be human, the purpose of life outside of the material realm, and understanding that the, the journey so far, which was a phase one right prior to this transition, was that we became so enchanted by the volume of knowledge.
And insight that we gain from seeing each other on the internet, that it accidentally, and I say accidentally because I don’t think anyone does this on purpose, it accidentally allow, allowed us to not pay attention to our children as much as we would [00:19:00] without the screen where in that same space, based on common sense media.
An average child now spends seven and a half hours per day on a screen, which, which bring, brings up a very contradictory thing in society currently because you can say you want to regulate ai, right? But think about it as a parent or educator, if I want to regulate my child’s seven and a half hour relationship, a, I’m really talking about censorship.
What is it allowed to communicate and talk about and whatever, right? So I essentially, I’m talking about censoring ai, which would be very, very difficult. And two. Which I think is the most important piece of AI is that for the, we need to realize that we’ve given up whether we want to admit it or not through this [00:20:00] enchantment or addiction, however you wanna call it, seven and a half hours of presence with our children, and we spend more time on screen time, like pull up your screen time in whatever hours it says like.
That’s hours, that pre-technology, pre the screen, you literally would’ve spent as a family with your kids, like you wouldn’t be distracted. And now look at, and now extrapolate that reality across all the things that we’re facing, all these hardships that we’re facing with our children, with our families, you know, and, and as you do that, keep in mind, whether you know it or not, AI has existed for a very long time.
AI is what has ran social media companies for a very, very long time, like 10, 15 plus years, right? Because ai, so that analogy, I have this analogy to like best describe it. So if you pretend that social media is a library, [00:21:00] you walk into the library, there’s all these books, and there’s also a librarian that that in, in a.
Essentially knows all of the books. Let’s pretend the librarian has read all of the books, right? So the librarian is the ai, the books are the algorithms. Us walking into the library, we’re the users, right? So each book has an intent and it has an outcome based on whoever wrote it, right? So the librarian comes, the AI comes and picks and chooses books for you to see things and to know things for you to keep coming back into the library.
’cause the library wants you to stay there, wants you to not turn the screen off. And the, the, the most important question that we as adults and children, especially children face, is what is my purpose in life? Like, why am I here? What is my purpose? Who am I? And that, that question when I can give you just enough of a taste of what the answer might be, but keep [00:22:00] you looking is why you’re gonna keep coming back.
Which is the found, which is the backend foundation of how currently AI is being used. So it’s not being used for purpose, it’s being used to distract purpose. It’s being used for you to have a lot of screen time. Equally. Equally, because in that process, like we as parents and educators have accidentally created this larger divide between like us and our kids on a connectivity level.
Right? And even just openly talking about. The things that we want in life, the things that we want society to be better. The prob like we don’t talk enough anymore about the problems we face for us to even know how our children feel. And even a lot of times like our partners in our relationships. And as that divide grew, we now have added AI chat.
The ability for us to just communicate with this AI that has existed, which is even further deepening that divide, because now you can [00:23:00] have a secret in quote, like a secret behind the scenes conversations about how you feel. And we’re now even, even further away from, from really where we’re heading, which is the purpose economy.
So my suggestion along this journey for us to best get through through the pivot is to understand that the, if you were going to choose, one thing that you need to do today, tomorrow, and every single day is understand that the greatest hardship and the greatest pain of this transitionary period is the fact that we have indirectly or directly started participating.
Patterns where we do not create the conversations necessary to give our children and loved ones the safe space to talk about how they feel, right to actually talk about how they feel about the world, the things going on, and instead, we keep going into our screens and trying to figure out how to, how to feel about the world and what’s going on from the screen [00:24:00] rather than talking.
That is creating this massive mental health crisis and this mental health issue that’s, that’s occurring because we just keep going back into the library, over and over thinking that it is this all knowing Alien that’s gonna give us all the answers. But really the answers are us. The answers are us aligning around what it means to be human, which is us getting along and talking and becoming a family again.
Amanda: Make sure to stay tuned for the next episode and the continuation of Adrian and I’s conversation. If you found this helpful, please share it with a colleague or a family member, anyone you think that could benefit from the information that Adrian and I are sharing with the world. To help you parents, kids, teachers, navigate all of the [00:25:00] rapid changes that are occurring in our world today.
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