Should kids use AI to make art?

The short answer

Yes, AI can have a place in children’s art, provided the child still has something to invent, choose, or change. An image generator can help a child explore an idea they cannot yet draw, or compare different ways to show it. But generating a picture and learning to draw are different activities, and children benefit from having time for both.

A useful starting point is to decide what the activity is for. If your child wants a picture for a story they have written, AI may help them illustrate it. If they want to learn how to draw a face, an automatically generated face gives them little practice with the shapes and lines. Neither activity needs to be dismissed, but the finished image alone will not tell you what the child learned.

Start with the skill your child wants to practice

Imagine a child who wants to make an underwater garden. They might draw fish with leaf-shaped fins, build a coral sculpture from cardboard, or describe the scene to an image generator. Each approach gives them different decisions to make, even when the subject stays the same.

When children draw or build, they work directly with materials and adjust what happens as they go. When they use an image generator, much of that execution happens automatically. They can still make creative choices through their descriptions, selection, and revisions, but adults should not assume that a polished result shows the same skills as a drawing made by hand.

The table is a planning aid, not a test a child has to pass. Sometimes making a ridiculous picture together is just entertainment. The distinction becomes useful when an adult describes an activity as art practice or uses the output to judge a child’s ability.

Where AI can help

Some children can describe a detailed scene long before they can draw it as they imagine it. AI can give them a visible version to discuss, including details they want to keep and details the tool got wrong. A child who describes a shy sea monster might discover that the generated monster looks angry, then try changing its posture or expression. Comparing the picture with their intention can become part of the creative work.

There is some encouraging evidence from classrooms. In a four-phase study involving 132 elementary students and two art teachers in China, researchers explored generative AI during group art projects. Children used it for information, inspiration, and guidance, while teachers reported increased engagement. Students also struggled to express requests that produced the intended results. The authors’ AskArt study manuscript describes both the opportunities and the difficulties.

The study does not establish that image generators produce lasting improvements in children’s creativity. The researchers noted short exposure in part of the study and a limited baseline comparison, among other constraints. It supports trying carefully guided activities, rather than promising that access to AI will make a child more creative.

Where AI can take over

The risk is easiest to see when the tool supplies the idea and the finished picture before the child has decided much at all. If the activity becomes asking for another version until an appealing one appears, the child may spend most of the time browsing. Choosing can be part of making art, but it leaves less time for developing an idea or working through a difficult section.

Parents can also unintentionally make the generated picture seem like a correction of the child’s drawing. Before turning a drawing into a polished image, ask whether the child wants another version. Keep the original and let the child describe what should stay. A lopsided house or an animal with unusual proportions may be exactly what they intended, so there is no need to frame the AI version as an improvement.

Research with adults offers another reason to pay attention to the starting point. In a 2024 experiment, adults who received AI story ideas produced stories rated more creative, but their stories also became more similar to one another. The published short-story study concerns adult writing, not children’s drawing. It cannot tell us what will happen in a child’s art session, though it suggests a question parents can watch for: are the suggestions helping the child explore, or making each creation follow the same pattern?

A practical way to use it together

First, give your child time to describe, sketch, or build an idea before opening the image generator. A rough beginning is enough. For the underwater garden, they might decide that the plants float upside down or that the fish hide inside flowers. The point is to give them an intention they can compare with the output.

Second, agree on a small job for AI. Ask for two ways to show the floating plants, for example, rather than asking it to design the entire garden. Look at the suggestions together and ask which details fit the child’s idea. If neither works, rejecting both is a reasonable outcome.

Third, let the child make the next version in whatever medium suits the activity. They can redraw a section, change their description, or build something from the image. Finish by looking at what changed and why. The conversation can stay brief and curious, without turning every art session into an assessment.

These are practical suggestions, not a research-tested formula. Some children enjoy directing images in detail, while others would rather keep drawing. Their preference can guide how much AI belongs in that particular activity.

Where Taroo fits

Taroo offers guided creative activities with clear steps and AI feedback across art, writing, speaking, and music. Parents can see what their children make and follow their progress, as described on Taroo’s website. For art, the useful connection is having something to make and feedback to consider during the activity.

For example, after a drawing activity, a parent can look at the child’s work with them and discuss one detail they chose or one change they might try. That is a way to use guided practice and feedback while keeping the child’s decisions visible. Supporting continued creative practice is our aim; it is not a claim that Taroo has been proven to raise creativity scores.

Give children more than one way to make art

AI does not need to become the default whenever a child wants to create a picture. Leave room for paper, paint, clay, collage, and digital drawing, including work that stays rough or unfinished. A tool that helps with one goal can remove useful practice from another.

If your family chooses an image generator, check its current age requirements and privacy settings, and supervise use as appropriate. Avoid putting a child’s personal information into prompts, and be clear about which parts of a shared picture were generated. For schoolwork or competitions, follow the organizer’s rules.

Children can use AI to make art while continuing to develop their own ideas and skills. The most useful decision for a parent is what help to offer on this occasion, and what to leave for the child to figure out.