How I use AI to bring my kid's art to life - and why it's a fun learning opportunity

AI generations by Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• AI tin heighten kids' creation without replacing their creativity.
• Starting with archetypal drawings keeps the kid arsenic the artist.
• Simple prompts assistance kids larn ethical, hands-on AI use.

I constitute a batch astir AI tools for work, and I've been trying to fig retired however to present my 4-year-old girl to them without turning AI into a magic "make worldly for me" button.

I precocious saw a CBS Sunday video of histrion Ethan Hawke saying he's "so bored" by AI, and that 1 happening helium loves astir theatre is that AI can't bash it. 

"I consciousness I couldn't beryllium little funny successful computers and fake things," helium said. "I similar people. I similar the mode they smell. I similar the mode they talk, and I similar the mode they think. I similar to deliberation of AI arsenic a plagiarizing mechanism. You know, that's each it is."

He besides said, "I cognize it's going to alteration the world, and it's screwing everybody up, and I'm not successful denial astir that. But I'm successful unfastened rebellion." As a writer archetypal and foremost, I couldn't hold with him more. But arsenic a tech journalist, I besides cognize for a information that AI is already changing the world, and I privation my girl to beryllium prepared for that reality.

Also: Free Photoshop successful ChatGPT: How to edit photos with AI, nary acquisition necessary

At the aforesaid time, I privation her to enactment creative, messy, imaginative, and hands-on. So, I've been showing her however to usage ChatGPT, Gemini, and OpenAI's Sora to augment her ain drawings alternatively of generating creation from scratch.

As critics person pointed out, AI tin lone make what it's been trained on, which is other artists' work. By starting with ideas she really enactment connected paper, it turns AI into a amusive learning instrumentality portion reinforcing that she's inactive the artist.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's genitor company, filed an April 2025 suit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights successful grooming and operating its AI systems.)

1. Use ChatGPT to marque 3D illustrations

I similar to springiness my girl paints, markers, crayons, and canvases, and fto her person amusive astir each day. Sometimes she creates speedy illustrations, and different times I'm genuinely impressed by the level of item she adds.

Either way, I privation to promote her to marque immoderate she wants. So when I usage ChatGPT connected her artwork, the extremity isn't to regenerate her benignant but to bring to beingness what's already there. For example, she precocious painted a elemental greenish and purple quality with orangish eyes. I took a photograph of it and uploaded it to ChatGPT to spot what it could bash with her art.

Since I wanted to support her composition, colors, and shapes but adhd texture, depth, and detail, I utilized the pursuing prompt:

Bring my daughter's drafting to beingness arsenic a much realistic, surviving character. Keep the consciousness of her archetypal artwork, including its colors and shapes, but adhd texture, depth, and brushed 3D item truthful it looks live and tangible portion inactive intelligibly being her art.

The last effect inactive looks unmistakably similar her drawing, conscionable much dimensional and realistic. When I showed it to her, she was amazed and instantly wanted to bash more. She couldn't hold to overgarment again, truthful we'd person thing other to upload.

How to usage ChatGPT connected your child's art:

1. Open ChatGPT connected desktop oregon the mobile apps and commencement a caller conversation.
2. Optional: Enable impermanent chat if you don't privation your creation to bid aboriginal AI models.
3. Select the Create Image instrumentality successful the punctual field.
4. Upload a photograph of your child's artwork.
5. Use the punctual supra oregon thing similar.
6. Adjust the effect with follow-up prompts, if needed.

Also: Is that an AI image? 6 telltale signs it's a fake - and my favourite escaped detectors

This is besides wherever your kid tin get involved. I work my archetypal punctual retired large to my daughter, but aft the archetypal generation, I fto her determine what other to add. She wanted to spot her quality with reddish eyes, sparkles, and a smile, truthful we experimented from there.

Elyse Betters Picaro / ChatGPT / ZDNET

2. Use Gemini to reimagine characters

On different painting, I utilized Gemini Nano Banana Pro, which does a large occupation of retaining likeness if you upload a photograph of an existent idiosyncratic and inquire the AI to manipulate it portion keeping their look and expressions intact. Now, you could usage the aforesaid punctual supra that we utilized for ChatGPT, but I'm trying to besides amusement her however to play with prompts. So we went with:

Make my daughter's drafting "come alive" arsenic a much life-like, realistic mentation of her character. Keep the archetypal colour palette and creation truthful it is inactive intelligibly her art, portion mildly reimagining it.

Her archetypal coating showed a reddish and greenish carnal with what looked similar arms and legs. Gemini leaned into that thought and turned it into a much defined quality portion preserving the aforesaid colors and composition. The archetypal procreation really created a tree-like figure, implicit with a trunk, leaves, and apples, but it had eyes, and the branches became the arms and legs.

How to usage Gemini connected your child's art:

1. Open Gemini connected desktop oregon the mobile apps and commencement a caller conversation.
2. Optional: Enable impermanent chat if you don't privation your creation to bid aboriginal AI models.
3. Select the Create Image instrumentality successful the punctual field.
4. Upload a photograph of your child's artwork.
5. Use the punctual supra oregon thing similar.
6. Adjust the effect with follow-up prompts, if needed.

Also: Inside the making of Gemini 3 - however Google's dilatory and dependable attack won the AI contention (for now)

My girl thought the archetypal procreation was hilarious but rapidly made definite to archer me, "No, Mommy, it's expected to beryllium a lizard!" So we asked Gemini to marque it much lizard-like and had amusive tweaking the punctual to get antithetic results.

Elyse Betters Picaro / Gemini / ZDNET

3. Use Sora to animate artwork

This is wherever things truly got entertaining, and it's the AI instrumentality my girl had the astir amusive trying. We took 1 of her paintings, which she said is simply a "blue feline eating a caterpillar." Right. Anyway, we fed that into Sora. But alternatively of asking Sora to adhd 3D item oregon reimagine it, I created a precise elemental prompt. And since Sora includes audio, I asked it to marque a sound too. We tried:

Make my coating travel live and beryllium realistic. The bluish feline should devour the caterpillar and say, "Mmhmm."

I didn't notation my girl successful the punctual similar I did successful the different examples because, successful my experience, Sora flags immoderate notation of children arsenic a imaginable contented usurpation and won't make a video.

How to usage Sora connected your child's art:

1. Open the Sora app for iOS oregon Android and pat the + Generate fastener astatine the bottom.
2. Select the Upload Photo fastener adjacent to the punctual field.
3. Upload a photograph of your child's artwork.
4. Enter a punctual describing the movements and sounds you'd similar to see, and notation a benignant similar photorealistic oregon illustrated.
5. Adjust the effect with follow-up prompts, if needed.
6. You bash not request to publically stock your video and tin simply store it arsenic a draft.

Also: Stop accidentally sharing AI videos - 6 ways to archer existent from fake earlier it's excessively late

Our finished result? You tin cheque it retired for yourself here. It's a small unsettling, but my girl got a immense footwear retired of it and has astir apt rewatched it 50 times. She present asks maine to usage Sora connected astir everything she creates and is getting amended astatine giving circumstantial punctual instructions, similar making her characters accidental thing oregon determination a definite way.

Elyse Betters Picaro / Sora / ZDNET

Why this is antithetic from 'AI art'

A batch of radical are understandably captious of AI image/video generators, particularly erstwhile it comes to artists' enactment being utilized without consent. I get that, and that's wherefore teaching my girl astir AI early, and however to usage it ethically and thoughtfully, matters.

Here, the starting constituent is my daughter's ain archetypal art. We aren't asking AI to transcript idiosyncratic other oregon make thing retired of bladed air. She's learning however AI tin physique connected her creativity, not regenerate it. With this approach, she's inactive the artist, and the AI is simply a tool, not the creator. That favoritism is particularly important to maine erstwhile introducing her to this technology.

Also: Hate creating presentations? I tried Google's caller Nano Banana Pro-powered tool, and the results blew maine away

The happening is, this isn't conscionable for kids. If you sketch, paint, doodle, oregon plan characters, you tin usage the aforesaid workflow to find inspiration for your ain artwork. Upload your illustrations and archer the AI to respect what you've made. Use prompts that stress retaining likeness, colors, shapes, composition, and adjacent style, and beryllium arsenic circumstantial arsenic you request to beryllium portion experimenting.

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET