AI Tutors Won't Teach Your Kid to Think — They'll Teach Them to Quit

Let me describe a scene that is playing out in millions of homes right now.

A twelve-year-old sits down to do their homework. They encounter a problem they don't immediately understand. Instead of sitting with the discomfort, re-reading the material, or asking a parent or teacher, they open ChatGPT and type the question. Thirty seconds later, they have an answer. They copy it, feel productive, and move on.

This is being sold to us as a revolution in personalized education. I want to argue it is actually a quiet catastrophe.