ChatGPT has entered the Top 100 Coolest Brands for Kids for the first time, landing at number 60 in the UK. Remarkable? Yes. Completely inevitable? Also, yes. But - how should we feel about it?

The conversation around children and AI has largely been dominated by fear. Fear for their safety online. Fear for the planet, as scrutiny around AI’s environmental impact grows. Fear that kids will use it to cheat on homework, outsource critical thinking, or lose the ability to be creative altogether.

If social media has been accused of shortening children’s attention spans, AI is being accused of turning developing neural pathways into mulch.

But when we talk to kids, the story gets more nuanced.

What kids are saying

A key assumption underpinning much of the debate is that children are using ChatGPT to bypass thinking. But that’s not really what we hear when we speak to kids (and we’ve been talking to them about AI since 2023). In fact, many are surprisingly sceptical about AI:

“For YouTube, I just search for the subject I’ve got to write about, like a specific country or time in history, and watch the videos to get ideas. I use Chat GPT for ideas too, but sometimes feel like I’m cheating a bit with that” - Josh, 13

"When I see AI videos on YouTube Shorts, sometimes I watch it, sometimes I scroll past it. I like watching what actual people can do. When I see an AI video I sometimes think 'that would never happen in real life'." – Emma, 10

"Most people use [AI] for essays and stuff, they'd say like 'write an essay as an 11 year old girl'. But sometimes it can be wrong, or it'd give you a good one but it's a bit fishy, like words you'd never use. The teacher may get suspicious." - Elizabeth, 11

Kids don’t think that Chat GPT (or any other AI tool) is perfect. They know it gets things wrong, and that its attempts at creativity and playing human can be clumsy. Like adults, they worry about over-relying on it, and many are already rolling their eyes at the growing amount of AI ‘slop’ flooding their feeds.

But they can also see what it helps them to do, and that’s where things get interesting.

ChatGPT isn’t resonating with kids because it removes effort. It’s resonating because it removes barriers. They’re using it to get started, unstuck, and to tackle things they couldn’t previously tackle on their own.

“I have been using Chat GPT to help me to revise Biology and it’s worked so well, the Biology test was really easy.” – Lori, 14

"ChatGPT is my go-to place if I want help with Rainbow Six Siege gameplay. I can ask it anything and it's much better advice. It recommended to me what Operator to buy and it gives you tips for gameplay which are useful and it breaks it all down for you" – Theon, 11

What unites these examples isn’t cheating, bypassing intelligent thought or finding ways to do less, it’s actually finding ways to do more.

These kids are using Chat GPT to move from “I don’t know” to “let me figure that out”. In other words, they aren’t handing over responsibility for thinking; they’re finding somewhere to start. And this is the crux of why Chat GPT is cool for kids.

So, how should we feel about its arrival in the Coolest Brands Top 100?

Honestly, we’re still figuring that out. The concerns around safety, the environment, creativity and critical thinking aren’t going away any time soon, and nor should they.

But while adults debate what AI might take away from childhood, many kids are far more interested in what it gives them: the building blocks to learn something new, solve a problem, or pursue an ambition that once felt out of reach.

For a generation growing up in a complex and often scary world that can leave them feeling small and powerless, that feeling of agency and possibility may be one of the coolest things a brand can offer.

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