Take the child into confidence. The cost of letting the chatbot do their thinking is real, and most children can absorb this if an adult explains it. (Image: AI generated) 4 min read May 12, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: May 12, 2026 at 06:30 AM IST On April 1, the Union Education Minister launched the new CBSE curriculum on computational thinking and artificial intelligence for students of Classes III to VIII. The rollout is among the most ambitious school AI programmes anywhere in the world. There is no plan, however, for how those children will use AI. Consider the chatbot on a child’s phone at nine in the evening, sitting beside a half-finished assignment. No syllabus reaches that. A recent study by the Salaam Bombay Foundation and NMIMS surveyed 1,050 Class IX students across 20 Mumbai municipal schools. More than 70 per cent reported using ChatGPT, mostly for maths problems, translations, and homework. The study also found early signs of cognitive offloading: Letting a tool do our mental tasks.…