Cancelling the Trauma Template in AI-Generated Kids Media & All Media | SURF Incubator x Kelly Tutors

Ask AI to write a children’s story and watch what happens: dead parents, abandoned children, terrifying villains, danger, loss, survival—and then we call the trauma “growth.”
Why is THIS the default template??? Stressing kids out while we're supposed to be entertaining them? Why not EDUCATE THEM?
AI learned storytelling from us. Now it’s repeating the same patterns back at enormous speed. But that also means we have an opportunity to grab hold of the technology early and teach it something better.
In this interactive talk, Kelly Kirk—founder of Kelly Tutors, a children’s media and edutainment cultural revolution!—will break down the Trauma Template:
Remove safety
Create fear or loss
Force survival
Call the outcome “growth”
Then we’ll explore an Empowerment Template built around curiosity, participation, pattern recognition, useful skills, community, and leaving children more capable than they were before.
AI is going to help create an enormous amount of children’s media. Let’s not use it to mass-produce the same childhood trauma stories forever!!!
SCHEDULE
1:00–1:30 PM — Networking
1:30–2:30 PM — Interactive presentation and Q&A
2:30–3:00 PM — More networking, conversation, and meeting cool people
Paid tickets help support SURF Incubator, our community venue, and cover the costs of producing the event.