From Disappointment to Innovation: Hello Wonder’s Mission to Transform Education for Kids with AI

Co-Founder of kid tech AI startup Hello Wonder and TED AI Fellow Seth Raphael has long since dreamt of a better use of technology, especially regarding kids' education. In this post, he shares the story behind Hello Wonder, its impact on learning today, and its potential to reshape the future of education.?

Hello Wonder emerged from the need for better classroom technology?

Seth has been studying educational pedagogy and neural networks since his undergraduate years. He looked at all the ways technology could be used in the classroom and was disappointed with the current educational technology offerings.?

Knowing the potential of AI and how it could help kids learn, even 20 years ago, Seth dreamed of creating a child-based online solution specifically for children’s safety and education. That AI solution eventually became Hello Wonder.?

Seth believes “ [AI] wasn’t to replace humans, but to help us become our best selves.” He wanted to create an “educational technology that didn’t just tell you got that answer wrong, but it would tell you why you got it wrong, and it would have an understanding of what you believed and could help make a bridge from what your mental model is to a more correct one.”

Seth’s focus on Hello Wonder really began when his oldest children wanted to be online and use technology. He saw that a lot of content created for children, actually wasn’t for children. At best, it was poorly disguised product placement and advertisements.?

As most parents have struggled, Seth also struggled with the massive amounts of content on the internet. “There’s so much content. I can’t watch it all. It hasn’t been vetted by everybody.” So, he wanted to create something better.?

“I felt like if I could have my values imbued by a piece of software that could watch every video for me and help decide whether I would put it in front of my kids or not; my kids could have so much more freedom. If I could create a tool that watched videos and found the good ones and gave them to my kids, not only would I love it, my kids would love it, and the whole world would love it.”

Easing the technology burden for parents

It has become increasingly burdensome for parents to keep up with children’s technology. The rapid pace with which it changes and the new types of technology being created all add up very quickly. For many parents, it feels impossible to keep up.?

While some tech companies have created a version of parental controls, they can be difficult and time-consuming to set up, or technological issues make them ineffective.?

Seth created Hello Wonder to “create an entire ecosystem where parents can open up the world of the Internet and technologies to their kids, and kids can get the freedom they deserve and bring kids and parents together.”?

It’s safe and easy to use for both parents and kids, and it does exactly what it was intended to do. As Seth put it, “parents deserve better, and kids deserve better too.”?

Privacy and security are #1 at Hello Wonder?

Kids have to be safe online. That is a non-negotiable for all parents, and there are many ways to ensure that your kids are kept safe. Hello Wonder is already taking many of those steps and working towards more.

According to Seth, one of the most significant sources of privacy is that Hello Wonder doesn’t sell user data. While this is common in the tech industry, Hello Wonder stands firm on this. Additionally, user data is encrypted at two points, both at rest and in transmission, so parents can rest assured that their child’s data is fully protected.?

Hello Wonder has a chat feature, and parents are in control of adding contacts for each child. This ensures that unknown people can’t contact your child, and your child can’t unknowingly share their information with strangers.

How Wonder’s AI handles sensitive questions?

When asked how Hello Wonder handles sensitive questions from children, Seth shares that “kids are curious, and they're curious about things that adults aren't ready for them to be curious about.” It’s the “fundamental belief of Hello Wonder that every family has a right and responsibility to decide how they address those sensitive questions,” regardless of the topic. Hello Wonder has created an AI that is “considerate of multiple different points of view.”?

Families can expand upon that basic AI and further refine it. They can say what is important to them, and the AI guides the child’s experience with that information. If a child asks a question or ventures into a topic that the parent has instructed the AI to avoid, the “goal is to redirect the child to a similar topic or area of exploration that aligns with the kid's fundamental curiosity” but avoids complicated questions or topics that the family has identified as inappropriate.?

Seth goes on to describe a possible scenario: “For example, if a kid says, you know, what is sex? We might say, I can't talk about that right now, but have you ever wondered how fish reproduce? Let's learn about that. Wonder redirects them to a topic that gets at some of their questions without necessarily revealing more than a parent would have wanted. Now if a parent had said it's fine for my kid to learn all about sexual reproduction, then our AI would be able to give them more content from the web and talk about it more exclusively.”

Join us on our mission to keep kids safe while they learn and thrive online!

The digital landscape of technology is constantly evolving, and Hello Wonder is no different. What started as a singular vision over 20 years ago has grown and become a reality, and that reality is helping kids learn today.?

Hello Wonder has many opportunities to enter the classroom and help teachers and students reach their full potential. It can also help parents navigate tough questions with their children or help their kids learn more about exciting topics while keeping them safe online.?

The potential for Hello Wonder is limitless, and we can only wait and see what wonderful opportunities the team at Hello Wonder will create. Visit the website or download the app today!