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Hi, and welcome to Try AI for Growth, a baby podcast out of Make Space for Growth. Here, I share short and maybe surprising stories of how I’ve used technology to tackle everyday challenges—at home, at work, and in business.
I’m your host, Sara Vicente Barreto, and today I want to bring a fun story. I feel we need some distraction in a week like this. Today’s story is about a book—one I couldn’t even read. But with a bit of help from AI, that book turned into a night of discovery, curiosity, and laughter with my son. And it all started in Chinese.
The Book We Couldn’t Read
My son came home this week with a book from the school library. It looked fun and colourful and featured all kinds of robots. There was just one small issue: it was written entirely in Chinese. I was puzzled as I looked at him and asked why he would bring home a book fully in Chinese.
Now, I don’t speak or read Chinese, neither does he. He was hoping we could just look at the pictures and guess the words. It did not look that much fun really. Instead of giving up, I turned to my trusted sidekick—ChatGPT.
How AI Stepped In
I opened up the ChatGPT app and used two features I hadn’t really used in this combination before: Voice Mode and the Lens. I like to use the voice feature with the kids because that allows them to interact more easily and to get the answer straight from the source. They also observe easier the sort of interaction and questions I send back to the app. So here is how we did it:
🎤 Using Voice Mode, I explained our issue and how we really wanted to understand what the pages were telling us and what the different robots did, but we had no way of doing it. ChatGPT immediately said she (I have a women’s voice on mine) could help us with that, all I had to do was to show the page.
🔍 With the Lens, I scanned the full page including the Chinese text. With only a glimpse, ChatGPT was able to give us the type of robot, what features it had and what it was used for.
Going Deeper
I could tell it was not reading word for word, so I asked if it could not do that. It turns out that I had my camera too far, therefore the immediate reaction was to provide me with the main theme of the page and the chosen robot rather than read the individual text. Remember, it privileges speed.
With this, we picked parts of the text we wanted to know more about and even pointed at certain components on the page to understand how they worked and what they would be.
It was like turning the book into a guided tour, with AI helping us understand, translate, and expand the content together.
Following Curiosity
As we flipped through the pages and my son picked which ones would we stopped in, a few robots caught our attention—one that helps people walk, another “dog-like” that was also a home assistant, and another that could express emotions. We continued to ask questions.
We enquired what these robots could be used for, whether they existed in Europe and if they were available for other applications. Each page brought us a new story and it was a whole other experience than looking at a picture book. Because really that was all I would be able to do with that book!
Ending the Evening Right
We like to read before bedtime and I had to find a creative way to cut the book short. It was far too big and the whole process took much longer as we asked extra questions from ChatGPT with each page. So we wrapped up the adventure with three final touches:
✅ A fun fact – ChatGPT told us about the tiniest robot ever made
✅ A quick quiz with 3 questions about the robots we had just read about – a great way to consolidate learning just before going to sleep
✅ And, because why not, we asked for a short bedtime story. It was about a little robot who wanted to explore Earth.
That story was the perfect endnote—gentle, creative, and just long enough to help him to remember our robot adventure.
Why This Mattered
We didn’t set out to do a learning session. This wasn’t about pushing extra knowledge or making something “educational.” It was about curiosity, connection, and having the tools to explore together. I am often the one limiting the use of technology by the kids, but I like to bring it in times when it can keep us connected while discovering something new.
What AI did was simple—but powerful. It helped us:
- Bridge a language gap
- Discover new facts
- And make a foreign book feel like our own little story adventure
What You Can Try at Home
If you find yourself facing something you can’t read, don’t walk away. Ask AI to:
- Translate short texts or book pages with the Lens or image input
- Summarize what’s happening in the story
- Suggest real-life examples related to what you’re reading
- Turn the content into a quiz, a game, or even a bedtime story
Whether it’s Chinese, robots, or something else entirely—use it as a moment to explore. Sometimes, it is just a picture book when you don’t have enough energy to make up a story. AI can get you started, or even draft the full story if that is what you are after.
Final Thoughts
This was one magical evening where technology didn’t interfere but instead supported our time together and made everything more fun and meaningful – quite literally! I didn’t need to prepare a lesson or find a new resource. I just needed to say, “Let’s see what we can do with this!”
Thanks for joining me for this lighthearted episode of Try AI for Growth. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share your own stories of how you’re using AI to learn, laugh, and bond with your kids.
Until next time—keep experimenting, and keep having fun! 🤖📚✨