How Robots Help Kids Learn and Parents Relax

Welcome to AI for Kids! This episode is made for elementary and up.

What if bedtime could be the most fun part of your child's day? Discover how Snorble, created by Mike Rizkalla, is gamifying bedtime routines for both kids and parents. Join us as Mike, the CEO and co-founder, shares his journey from professional musician to a trailblazer in motion graphics and UX design. Learn how his childhood passions in history and physics led to his career in technology and gaming, and his commitment to blending creativity, storytelling, and music.

Mike discusses the challenges parents face with bedtime routines and how Snorble transforms these moments from stressful to delightful. With a background in computer design, motion graphics, and AI, Mike explains how Snorble was designed with privacy and safety in mind, operating without cameras or internet connectivity. Listen to Mike's personal anecdotes and discover how his experiences inspired Snorble.

Watch the YouTube video with Snorble: https://youtu.be/9EZIZz_qlq8?si=arRyS2sSpLQDSeNz&t=455

We explore the broader implications of AI in children's lives, emphasizing the importance of parental oversight in advanced technology. Mike discusses Snorble's innovative design as a closed system providing safe, curated content, avoiding the risks of open-ended platforms. Stay with us as we look into the future of AI and robotics, sharing updates about Snorble's features and the importance of a cautious approach when integrating AI technologies like ChatGPT into children's environments.

Main Topics:

• Exploring AI for Kids With Snorble (00:00:00)
• Creating Snorble (00:10:08)
• Technology, Learning, and Child Development (00:17:41)
• Parenting in the Age of AI (00:23:42)
• The Future of AI and Technology (00:32:53)
• Exploring AI With Mike and Amber (00:42:09)

Fun Segment:

• Tech Trivia: Fun questions about technology and AI 
  • What does "Wi-Fi" stand for?
  • Who is considered the father or mother of AI?
  • Which company created the first smartphone?
• Two Truths and a Dream: Learning more about Mike’s career and dream job 

Additional Resources:

• Snorble Official Website
• Mike Rizkalla on LinkedIn
• Further reading on AI safety for kids

Interested in investing in Snorble? Contact Mike.

Transcript

Amber Ivey: 0:00

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hi everyone, Welcome back to the AI for Kids podcast. Today we have a very special guest. Please welcome, Mike Riscala. He is the CEO and co-founder of Snorble. If you don't know what Snorble is, don't worry, you will know by the time we finish talking today. Mike, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey?

Mike Rizkalla: 0:49

Yes, for sure. So first off, amber, thank you for having me. I am a advocate and very, very excited about technology as a whole. I have a computer electrical engineering background, but most of my career has been in motion graphics and UX design for digital products and television. So I made a lot of products for a lot of different companies and a lot of different people.

Mike Rizkalla: 1:11

I have been part of companies that have done some pretty cool things, like when I was younger I was on a very, very early employee at a company that removed paper from 2D animation. So I was a part of the group that actually made the process for a lot of our favorite Saturday morning cartoons all around the world and to this day they still use that same process, which is pretty cool. And then I got to play with all those really cool digital assets and make great new experiences for kids. So I've been doing it for a long time and this is kind of my next life, if I can say that, my third or fourth life, I guess in terms of my real life, where Snorbel is kind of the amalgamation of everything that I love.

Amber Ivey: 1:54

So you mentioned a couple words that I want to ask you to explain. So talk to me about what is motion graphics for those of us who are like what is that? What are you talking about, mike? What's going on here?

Mike Rizkalla: 2:06

So motion graphics are kind of like, you know, when you go to a movie and they have the big opening to the movie and they have the title come in and a bunch of other things come in. Well, that's kind of motion graphics right. It's about taking the different parts of an image or taking a title and kind of bringing those in in a way that's really interesting and engaging for people. So I got to work a lot in television very early on where we got to play with all those things and kind of experiment with all those things. And now we're applying a lot of those things, even in terms of the new way that we're experiencing some of these new products and these new experiences.

Amber Ivey: 2:43

Your career sounds like the dream job, like when you're talking about Saturday morning cartoons. I know a lot of kids I don't know if y'all do Saturday morning cartoons, but I know you all still watch cartoons, whether it's on YouTube or TV, but, like I remember my childhood, that being a very important part of my day. So thank you for making sure that I can enjoy all the cartoons that I've loved over the years. And it's just interesting when I think about your job and your career and even where you are now with Snorble. When you were growing up, did you always know you wanted to work with technology and eventually, robots?

Mike Rizkalla: 3:17

No, you know, when I started I actually wanted to be a musician and I was a musician. I was a professional musician for many, many years, even while I was working in technology, and that's kind of where my passion was. But you know, what's interesting is is that the things I love all kind of merge together, and that's something that I think a lot of us don't, we don't see until we get a little older. You know, like you kind of have a plan. You know your plan never is what you kind of imagine it will be, and then you find your way and your way, you know, could be. Just maybe there's passion. That's outside of work. But for me I was very lucky. I was able to combine a lot of things I really enjoy, which technology, creativity, storytelling, even music and there's a lot of music on Snorvel too. So getting to kind of take all those things together and see them all come together in a special way was really nice, yeah.

Amber Ivey: 4:07

I think that's super exciting. I'm trying not to jump all the way into Snorbel, but I'm really interested to find out, as a kid, what was your favorite subject when you were growing up.

Mike Rizkalla: 4:16

Oh wow, history, Probably history. Yeah, I love history.

Amber Ivey: 4:21

Why history for you?

Mike Rizkalla: 4:23

I just loved hearing the stories of our past, right, and also thinking about the things that have happened that have been not so good, and just also how sometimes history repeats itself, right, and creating connections between things that happened in our past and things that are happening today. I think that that's very powerful. But my second favorite subject, I would say, was physics. Loved physics, right.

Amber Ivey: 4:46

That's a big jump.

Mike Rizkalla: 4:47

Yeah, yeah. Well, because physics was all about like, in a way, how do I get this ball to hit that wall in exactly that spot? You know what's the wind, right? You know all that type of stuff, and I thought that was fascinating, right. So I really enjoyed that as well too, and then eventually I really got into computers, but more so on the gaming side. I love making games, yeah.

Amber Ivey: 5:13

I love that because a lot of folks that I talk to whether it's when I'm talking to AI for adults or for kids, they always talk about the gaming aspect, and I love that gaming has become such an important part of folks' journey, especially those who are creating really cool tools. I remember being a kid and my mom getting on me for playing games and then actually seeing folks being able to have careers that literally helped them to do amazing things. So I love that gaming has a different reputation in our current society, for sure.

Mike Rizkalla: 5:42

Yeah, me too, me too, Me too.

Amber Ivey: 5:45

So let's talk about Snorble. Okay, very cute robot. If you haven't seen it, there will be a link in the show notes and also, if you're watching on YouTube, I'll throw up an image of Snorble. But can you explain what Snorble is and how does it help kids?

Mike Rizkalla: 6:00

Well, why don't I bring Snorble and show it to you? How about I do that first?

Amber Ivey: 6:04

Please, yes, please, give me two seconds. That makes it even easier. Aw, it's so cute and it looks like a Snorble. That's one thing I liked about the name you all.

Speaker 3: 6:20

It looks like exactly how you named it. Thank you, hey, snorble. Introduce yourself. Hello, I'm Snorble. I'm a special buddy from the land of Lullaboo, a special place made from all your dreams. I've waited so long to be here with you and there's so many amazing things we're going to do. What's your name?

Mike Rizkalla: 6:39

My name's Amber.

Speaker 3: 6:46

I'm so happy to meet you. There have been some great dreams coming from this house. Sorry, that happens when I'm excited. Can I be your buddy?

Mike Rizkalla: 6:52

Yes, you can.

Speaker 3: 6:56

Oh boy, I'm so excited and I just can't wait.

Mike Rizkalla: 6:59

I'll show you some things you can do. Hey, Snorble alphabet.

Speaker 3: 7:03

Hello. Letters make all sorts of funny sounds. I'd love to show you some. Are you ready?

Mike Rizkalla: 7:12

Yes, we are.

Speaker 3: 7:14

Okay, this is the letter X. It's used in words like hooks and exploring. X can make the sound, but it can also sound like.

Amber Ivey: 7:41

Are you also listening to this? You have to go to the YouTube to watch.

Speaker 3: 7:47

Do the sound, that's so sound black.

Amber Ivey: 7:48

Those who are listening to this you have to go to the YouTube to watch. Oh my gosh, that's so interactive. I didn't realize it was that interactive.

Speaker 3: 7:55

Hey Snorbel.

Amber Ivey: 7:57

Stop, oh my goodness, okay. So for kids who are listening to this online, go with your parents to our YouTube channel and watch Snorbel actually interact with Mike. It is wild how much it does in the interaction, also the voice recognition and how it's able to respond to you. That is such a cool toy. What is Snorble called? Is it a toy? What do you call?

Mike Rizkalla: 8:17

it. So Snorble is a child development system. Okay, there we go, but it's delivered through an adorable companion and the way that we kind of look at things are. Basically, this is the best opportunity for us to establish routines around things that are important for our family. So, through the companion app, parents are able to program what they want for their child, what's important to their families, and we actually focus on a multi-tier educational program, which is everything from the ABCs and 123s to healthy habits.

Mike Rizkalla: 8:50

So we really focused on sleep routines at the very beginning, but then we also have things like teeth brushing and putting on your pajamas, and then also social emotional wellbeing. So healthy habits, sorry. Social emotional wellbeing. So things like meditation, yoga all those are part of our core offering and you know we're still a startup. So we have about five hours of content on Snorbel now, but as we go, we keep evolving and we keep adding to that content. So our goal is is it something that your child grows with your child and it grows with family? And as the child develops, Snorbel will release new content and the child will be able to get access to things on their own schedule, on their own time.

Amber Ivey: 9:32

That is so cool. So I read about Snorble before I reached out to you but I didn't really understand how in-depth it was. I knew you all were a startup and had just started out on this journey not too long ago, but I really appreciated some of the videos I saw online but really excited to actually see Snorble in real life Well closer in real life as we can get, but what it can do. When you were thinking about Snorble and the fact that it can grow with a child, why did you all create Snorble? Where did Snorble come from?

Mike Rizkalla: 10:02

Yeah, so it was actually a long journey. It was almost 10 years to get to our first product. But Snorble really is about speaking to a lot of the challenges that children and parents face. You know, a lot of the challenges are actually a result of the parents being too tired or, you know, there's too much going on. We all face that right. So part of what Snorble does is it just makes it fun. It makes the things that we all face that right. So part of what snorkel does is it just makes it fun. It makes the things that we all have to do anyways fun and it allows everyone to enjoy it the parent and the child to enjoy the things that are often challenging for children to do. But we all enjoy it together because we gamify it right. So again to that game concept, right, oh yeah, and we gamify it.

Amber Ivey: 10:41

And then explain gamify. If I'm a kid who may not have heard the word, what does gamify mean?

Mike Rizkalla: 10:47

Sometimes, when we do things right, they're hard right or we don't want to do it. You know, like exercise, I can't stand exercise, yes, but we all need to exercise, right? So if you exercise as part of a game, it's way more fun, right? So what we've done is we've taken the things that aren't as much fun and we gamified them. We've made them fun.

Amber Ivey: 11:07

Like you said earlier. You said that Snorble can help you get ready for bed or your parent can stay in the app. It's time for bed. So we have a really cool routine versus the fussing and fighting that often comes with bedtime.

Amber Ivey: 11:19

It's now something that's fun and becomes a part of a new and fun routine for the child, which is so cool, part of a new and fun routine for the child, which is so cool. So, as I'm thinking about your background, which is computer design work, motion graphics experience, ux, your musical work I see now some of the pieces in Snorble. Can you talk more about how all the experiences you've had came into the creation of Snorble and made Snorble what it is today?

Mike Rizkalla: 11:42

Well, you know. So here's the thing. There was the career part of my life, but then there was also the family part of my life. So here's when it kind of everything came together right. I had opened up a robotics lab in 2014 and it was around robotics and AI. So we've been doing it for quite a while Okay, around a lot of concepts like crazy, crazy concepts, but leveraging AI in order to make something fun and new.

Mike Rizkalla: 12:08

And then what happened was I had my children, especially my second child, and my biggest passion is actually my family. So when I had my second child, my son, I remember sweetest boy ever at bedtime. Oh my God, just like toughest experiences I've ever had. Like you know, I could go in and negotiate big business deals, do you know, do all the big heavy work stuff, and, you know, be an adult and then combating with that young man was just something I've never experienced. It was biggest challenge I've ever had. And after one night of, you know, him coming into our bed and me bringing him back to the room, him coming into our bed and me bringing him back to the room, him coming into our bed and me bringing him back into the room, you know, four o'clock in the morning. I'm up and I can't sleep. You know, once I'm up I can't. My mind races right and I remember I was like there has to be something. There has to be something that helps him.

Mike Rizkalla: 13:00

Want to do this yeah right, because you know that's the challenge, right when a little one gets to a certain age. The reason why they call it the terrible twos, for example, is because they finally can say I don't want to do this. You know, this is the first moment where they, their opinion is now out in the world.

Amber Ivey: 13:20

Right, oh yeah.

Mike Rizkalla: 13:21

And then dealing with, you know, the complex emotions of not always getting their way or not, maybe even dealing with the stresses that we all deal with, that we can't like, half of us can't deal with. Imagine someone that isn't fully ready to deal with it right.

Mike Rizkalla: 13:35

So seeing that and understanding there is definitely a better way, and then looking and finding 190 million search results on how to get a toddler to sleep with nothing, wow, nothing that's really, really going to help. Yeah, like you know, and sure, the products that did come up, like you know, were things that were around medicating and I was like not for my boy, right, not for my family. So for me I was like, well, what can we do and how would I do this? How would I imagine this existing? So a couple of things kind of came to mind. One I didn't want a camera anywhere near my little one.

Amber Ivey: 14:17

Good point.

Mike Rizkalla: 14:17

Right, why is that? Well, privacy. I just don't want people being able to see in the home. I don't want people to be able to see my little one, and you know those things if they're connected online. You know that's a big risk, right? Oh yeah, so in designing Snorbo, there is no camera. We actually use sensors to understand better what's happening in order to get better experiences.

Mike Rizkalla: 14:39

Oh, that's so great, but there's no camera and it's also not online. What you saw was all that artificial intelligence. We're one of the only companies in the world that has that type of intelligence working directly on device.

Amber Ivey: 14:52

Yeah, I appreciate it that you all had that closed system. When I was looking into your product I was like this is cool that you are actually making it where, like you said, it's not connected to the Internet.

Mike Rizkalla: 15:10

I didn't realize it didn't have cameras, so that's also amazing to know. Yeah, well, and you know, and then that way the privacy of your home is really private, because a lot of the other devices that are in our home are listening and are seeing, right. So you know, the idea of that being in a bedroom and in a child's room, especially, like no one really likes that, right. So we decided to really focus on making sure that would not be the case. And then the other major thing and actually this was like probably the first challenge what we said was kids don't like AI. It's not that kids like AI. Kids don't go out and say I want to talk to a chatbot. Nobody says that. Right? Parents don't even want to talk to chatbots, right? No, they don't. What do we all love? We all love characters, yeah, and fun and engaging.

Mike Rizkalla: 15:48

Yeah. So what we decided to do was we decided to really, really focus on bringing an animated character to life. And what if we could get the characters that we love right out of the TV set into our homes? Imagine what that would be like? And so we decided that we were going to come up with our own character, and that's how we started with snorble, and then from there, we really, really focused on how that face would feel and what that experience would feel like. And it not feeling like a screen, it feeling like a real, physical character in the home. That's's the basis of how we started. Once we proved we could do that, we were like okay.

Amber Ivey: 16:28

Next, I love that when you brought Snorbel up to the screen and I'm glad you said it, because sometimes just hearing things and reinforcing what I just saw when I experienced Snorbel, I appreciate it I didn't feel like I was looking at a tablet or computer screen. I felt like I was interacting with interactive toy or character in a way that screens don't give the same thing to me. But I felt like, oh wow, I'm seeing the light sliding up, I'm seeing the face change, I'm seeing all the things that are happening there and I know for me, even as a fill in the blank old person, that it was really engaging and it kept me engaged and wanting to see what else it was going to do and even how you all use Snorble's body to also share information or like how the X came up across the chest. What made you all put all those different aspects into the entire body of Snorble? Was there a research you did to understand how kids wanted to interact with the tool? How?

Mike Rizkalla: 17:22

did that work. So we did a bunch of different things where we pulled, we actually pulled 600 families before we even launched our first product. We also did a lot of testing with families all along the way. So over the last four years we've dealt with a lot of kids and a lot of families. I actually have a great story for you that will kind of establish this. So when we were shooting our first video shoot, we shot that video shoot in Halifax, nova Scotia.

Mike Rizkalla: 17:48

At one point we'd had a family that came in adorable little boy and adorable little girl, and the little girl was kind of like the older big sister and she was in the bedroom doing the bedtime routine scene with the entire film crew and they were going through the filming of that and myself and the little boy's father and the little boy were sitting on the couch watching on the screen what was happening in the bedroom and the little boy was watching Paw Patrol. He was watching Paw Patrol and he had the tablet. His dad gave him the tablet to occupy him and he was looking at it and then he kept looking up at the screen. He looks over and he goes here I go. He passes over the tablet to his dad. He looks over and he goes here we go Right, passes over the tablet to his dad and then his dad's like what, what do you mean? And he goes, I go get snorkel, jumps off and runs, runs past all these full grown men with you know, camera gear and everything, runs past and start banging on the door while we're doing the shoot and I was at that point going.

Mike Rizkalla: 18:50

I've never seen that before. I've never seen a youngster pass a tablet off. But there is a connection, because what's better than having the characters you love in your home? There's nothing better. And we're seeing it like here's. Here's something that's really awesome. The majority of the families that have Snorble now, the majority are all still using Snorble every day, and that's a very rare thing to say.

Amber Ivey: 19:15

For sure, anything that a kid has to be used every day.

Mike Rizkalla: 19:20

Yes, and it could be part because of the way that we have designed the program. The program is around routines when we're at school and when we're going through education. There's a different approach, right? The approach that we had when we were younger it was around basically have to do it to death, right? You know, if you're learning your numbers, your alphabet, you would just go over and over and over and over and over and over it again.

Mike Rizkalla: 19:44

What we do is we do a little bit every day, over and over and over and over and over and over again. What we do is we do a little bit every day. You're not so much getting hammered right away. It's like you play the game that you want and then you learn the things that you want, and it's little bit by little bit, and even in terms of the entire program. We're releasing new features in the next little bit that I can't get into. But it's more about the idea that, as these new things get released, it's about helping the child establish what they are ready to learn at the times they're ready to learn, instead of doing it all at once, and that's very powerful, right? That's very powerful for the family.

Amber Ivey: 20:22

I love what you said on getting information basically bite-sized when it's time for you to receive it and in a way that allows you to receive it over time, versus like trying to force it down the child's throat, which allows the child to again create the routine and continue to learn information. No-transcript. I like that Snorbel provides bite-sized pieces and gets the child where they are. But I wanted to hear more about why do you think technology shouldn't come first and the other side of that is what should come first.

Mike Rizkalla: 21:06

Amber, that's a great question. Actually, here's my belief. My belief is that when technology is used for good, purely for good, it is an incredible asset. The problem is that typically, what we've had to date, especially in terms of our tablets and our phones and those types of things, is that they are open-ended systems where we have influence from everyone trying to gain our attention, mostly for commerce. So what's happening is that if you put your child on YouTube and the child's watching YouTube, there's stuff that's coming in that you don't want them to see.

Mike Rizkalla: 21:43

So what we did was we didn't open it up in a way where we have an open-ended system. It's not generative AI, it's a closed system. It's curated by the greatest minds in the world, and the reason for that is that we want to expose children to content that is only good. It's only good for them and also we don't want to create pathways in from potentially bad sources. So Snorbel is a completely closed system and over time, we'll find partners, but even those partners will be vetted and the content will be vetted. Anything that touches our children should be filtered right. Agreed, that is a challenge and what I find. Truthfully, even with the generative AI movement, there's a lot of great stuff happening, of course, but to open up an entire system where the program decides what is given to our children, no chance. I wouldn't do that, and that's why we chose that path, because, from our perspective, we are creating Snorble from our family to your family. That's the approach and that's how we believe every product should be made for kids.

Amber Ivey: 22:48

That's a great point. I do want to go back and have you define a couple words. So the first word is generative AI. So the kids would have heard. If they're listening to the podcast, they have a general understanding of what AI is, but you added a piece that they haven't learned about yet. Can you explain that in a way a five-year-old or fifth grader either one, pick your five can understand?

Mike Rizkalla: 23:11

So generative AI is when, basically, the program can actually decide what it's going to deliver to the person on the other end. So imagine when the AI goes in and says hey, you just asked me a question that I have never been asked before, but now I'm going to pull from all these different things, make my own assessment and give you back what I believe is correct. If all the things that it's pulling from is good, you're going to get, most likely, some good information. However, that's not what's happening, nation. However, that's not what's happening.

Mike Rizkalla: 23:49

We've seen so many different situations that have happened where maybe the machine talking and kind of making those decisions is not beneficial to the person or to the company that put out that AI. So, from my perspective, while I'm excited about the technology, we have to be responsible. We have to be responsible for our families, right technology. We have to be responsible. We have to be responsible for our families, right. So we're going to wait and see where it goes and we're going to wait for the right time when we believe that it is safe, and then at that point, we'll integrate in those technologies into our system. Until then, we are focused on curation and making the very best and richest experience for our families from our perspective.

Amber Ivey: 24:26

Oh yeah, I totally understand where you're coming from, but I actually want to go a little bit deeper on that generative AI piece with one of the most famous chat bots or chat AIs we've ever seen. Chat GPT has recently come out of research mode and now a lot of people are using it. Some schools are banning it. Some kids are using it. I want to hear your thoughts. Do you think it's safe for kids to use, based on our conversation we just had? And what should parents know?

Mike Rizkalla: 24:54

about it and what should kids know about it? I don't think I would put it in front of children unsupervised. I think that that's a mistake. I think that it has a lot of value, a lot of value, and I think it can be very beneficial for our youth, but I think it has to be completely supervised at this point. There have been situations where maybe the generative AI that's been created or those algorithms have done things that have been not good even in terms of situations that may make our children feel worse or may make them feel bad about themselves, or may make them feel bad about themselves or may make them feel bad about their families. So we can't have that right now. That's not worth the risk. It's not worth the risk. However, you know, seeing some of the wonderful things like having it help you with your math homework you can do that now. That's pretty incredible. Yeah, should that happen unsupervised? Not a chance. Chance Should be there for that experience, and if it starts going sideways, then you can be like off Right.

Amber Ivey: 25:52

Exactly.

Mike Rizkalla: 25:53

No, or talk to your children about it. You know I think again. Huge opportunities, but not not yet, not now.

Amber Ivey: 26:00

Yeah, agreed I've had this conversation with a few folks around if folks should be introducing their kids to things like chat, gbt or whatever a version of a generative ai people are using. But I'm definitely on the same page with you. I get places like khan academy has the ai tutor so a kid can work back and forth and doing things like that. So there are things like that where I'm like I understand the use and you have parents, of course, in the system and them trying to do the right thing within the system. But agree that just releasing a child out there on a tool that we barely understand and understand how it's getting to the exact answer that it's giving us, it doesn't make sense to do that for kids right now.

Amber Ivey: 26:39

With that being said, this stuff isn't going away and it's going to get progressively, not to say I don't want to say worse. There's going to be more AI tools, like thousands of companies are being released on a regular basis that are launching AI tools. Some companies, like yours, are now starting to reach into the kids market not as deep as the other markets, but eventually they're going to come to the kids. I know you've mentioned, and I think in your bio or in your questions, that kids shouldn't be raised by robots. They should be raised by their parents. But there's going to be a rise of these robots and these tools. How do you see technology like Snorable helping parents to be able to bridge that gap, whereas technology is growing and it's not going to stop, but parents are going to still have to be parents?

Mike Rizkalla: 27:23

If the technology is used openly, in the sense of like you're just going to give the technology to your children, well then that's danger. That's a risk. That's like giving a child a fork for the first time they're going to hurt themselves in some way. If you can curate and be selective of the content that's given in that technology, well then that's valuable. Because a couple of things. So, amber, I didn't even ask Tell me about your family before we jump in.

Amber Ivey: 27:51

So I do not have kids, but I have two nieces and a nephew who I'm very engaged in their lives. So I've experienced what it means to go through reading, to going to sleep and all that and what that looks like, and I've experienced the screaming and frustrations around different activities. Two of them are not on tablets. One is, and I am concerned about her tablet usage.

Mike Rizkalla: 28:12

Well, and you know, and that's the thing, because it is a very addictive technology, it's designed as such, it's designed to be addictive. So one of the things that we kind of want to think about here is is that, first off, every one of those kids is completely different.

Amber Ivey: 28:23

Yes, Yep Very different.

Mike Rizkalla: 28:25

Yes, yep, very different. Every person is completely different. We're right out of the gates. Everyone deals with stresses, deals with fear, deals with success, deals with education, deals with learning. They all deal completely differently.

Mike Rizkalla: 28:39

So one of the challenges is, especially when you're raising your first child and even actually your second and third child, we actually don't know what we're doing. When we start, you know, you're more scared, right, like you know, and you read and you try to get all the information in See. One of the benefits of the technologies is is that, if it's curated information, if it's information that's all good, right and can give you perspective, for you to decide what's best for your family. Well, that's what we've done. What we've done is, through a companion app, you can actually curate, for example, the bedtime experience that's right for your family and through that, norbert will deliver that routine.

Mike Rizkalla: 29:20

And in terms of the educational program, is your child having more trouble with reading? Are you more worried about them feeling reading? Are you more worried about them feeling confident? Are you more worried about them dealing with going from nonverbal to verbal? These are all very, very common things that we all struggle with at different times depending on our child. So, having the ability to kind of choose and to curate the experience that's most important for your family. Well, that's the power. Oh yeah, that's the power. But also, more importantly, help our littles thrive within their families.

Amber Ivey: 29:55

That's such a good point and I'm glad you called out the fact that the difference is I'm not just throwing a tablet in front of a child and then allowing the child to scroll like us adults do scroll until there's no end, but that you're having a technology and you're able to be a part of that with the app and being able to work with your child, to say, hey, these are things we're working on, and the parent can see what Snorbel is doing or tell it how to operate and how to work with the child. So I love that and that it can be customized to a child who may have different needs, because all kids, like you said, have very different needs. What are other ways technology can be used as a tool to support children as they think about their learning journeys?

Mike Rizkalla: 30:36

I strongly believe that having a system that allows for remediation to happen and tracks where children are having trouble where children are having trouble, like personalized learning journeys, is a very, very important key to helping them thrive and helping them to advance faster and better.

Mike Rizkalla: 30:59

I think that one of the methods and the ways that that becomes more impactful is if it's not tied to a specific location in a specific moment. So one of the challenges that we face is that you know when a child goes to school which is obviously school has been around for a long time when a child goes to school, it's time to do math. Well, now it's math time. If the child's not ready for math, they're not going to get everything that they want out of it at that moment. If they're tired they didn't sleep well that night, you know those types of normal things that we all deal with they're hungry, maybe they didn't get snack time or they didn't finish their snack, you know whatever it might be. So what's really important is being able to deliver the content in a way when the child's ready to receive it.

Amber Ivey: 31:38

That's a good point.

Mike Rizkalla: 31:40

And that, I think, is an opportunity for technology, for technology to advance in a way that is going to really really impact the overall success of that child and that family. The other thing I think too is is that you know we're starting to move into the new. It's a new world of technology. It's not, you know, the idea of the computer, the phone. What we're doing right now is going to be different in the next 10 years. That's so true.

Amber Ivey: 32:06

what we're doing right now is going to be different in the next 10 years.

Mike Rizkalla: 32:08

That's so true. Yeah, so, thinking of, like, the medium in which we engage right, like right now, I'm physically sitting with you right now, wouldn't it be great if we could walk together? You know what I mean. Well, the idea of being able to take a walk together while you're talking, or, for example, maybe even understanding where you are today, like last time we spoke to where we are now, being able to get a recap of that before we actually begin our conversation, or even understanding, maybe a bit of context of who you are, what's important to you, before we start.

Mike Rizkalla: 32:37

See, those are different opportunities that I think as these technologies mature and become more commercialized because they're not commercialized yet, that's the other thing that's kind of crazy as they become more commercialized because they're not commercialized yet, that's the other thing that's kind of crazy as they become more commercialized, we're going to see some opportunities that we haven't seen before. While chat, gpt is definitely in the market, like everywhere, the reality is is a lot of the tech that's becoming um, built on it, built from it, I could say that a lot of it's still experimental, you know. And, and even the physical robots that we're seeing, all the cool new robots in a really really cool right. You know they're not in market like with. People are already like oh, the world is ending.

Amber Ivey: 33:19

Right. Oh yeah, they haven't even gotten to our houses yet and we're like it's over.

Mike Rizkalla: 33:25

It's not crazy far out, but it's not here yet, right, we're still a little ways away. So we have to be real about a lot of those things, you know, and I think that there's still a lot of work to do before someone can successfully say, here and now, we have C3PO doing her dishes. We're a little ways away from that. The typical trajectory for all this stuff, or the pathway for how this stuff is going to commercialize, is it's going to be in factories, it's going to be in logistics, it's going to be in nuclear sites, oil rigs, things, where it's either dangerous or it's just not conducive for a human being to lift 5,000 boxes that day. We have to kind of get there, you know.

Amber Ivey: 34:10

That's a good point. I'm very interested in figure one or boss dynamics or whatever it's called. Now I'm very interested in them going to Mars and figuring that out before any humans go. But, to your point, it's like they are going to be in places where they're likely already like highly automated, and they already are showing up in some of those places. But folks shouldn't be as scared that we're going to see a robot walking down the street and saying hi. Amber. Hi Mike, how are you? We're not there yet.

Mike Rizkalla: 34:38

Would you like me to walk your dog for you? No, no, no. That's not going to happen yet. Will it happen in our lifetime? I believe very strongly. I think so right. We're going to see some incredible movement and some incredible things happen in the next 10 to 15 years. Whether or not it fully commercializes in the home, I don't know yet. We'll see.

Amber Ivey: 34:56

Agreed. I wanted to ask you one final question that's more like the serious AI stuff, and then we'll get into our fun segment. I know you mentioned earlier Snorble's doing some things that you can't talk about. So, kids, a lot of times when companies start, they can't talk about their ideas just yet. But are there projects that you can share with us, that you're really excited about, that you can share with the audience?

Mike Rizkalla: 35:18

So we're going to be releasing a wake-up routine coming up here soon, which I'm very excited about. So we have a bedtime routine wake-up routine very much needed. We are also going to be working on languages, so languages is another thing. There's nine languages on Snorble now, but only very, very limited. A few words, a few words from each one of those languages. More so to kind of prove out the concept, see how parents and families are reacting to it. We've gotten some good feedback, so the hope is now we're going to release some more of that coming up. I think the other thing that I'm very excited about are the outfits.

Mike Rizkalla: 35:52

when you put on outfits on snorble, it actually changes the character interesting, which is very exciting, so cool you'll be able to put on a panda outfit and snorble will become a panda, you know, or a unicorn outfit and snorble will become a unicorn, and that's that's very exciting and that's coming up soon.

Amber Ivey: 36:07

I love that. Sorry, in my head I'm like seeing Snorkel with this unicorn outfit or etc. And then behaving as such. That's so cool. To think about that type of technology and even integrating different outfits and the internet things of how things link to each other, that's so cool. Thank you for sharing that. So we're going to play a quick game called Tech Trivia cool, thank you for sharing that. So we're going to play a quick game called tech trivia. I'm going to ask you a few questions about technology or ai, and you got to try to answer as quickly as possible. The first question is what does wi-fi stand for?

Mike Rizkalla: 36:39

oh my god, I don't know. I know what it is, but I don't know what it stands for. Isn't that terrible?

Amber Ivey: 36:45

no, it isn't, because the funny thing was, when I was preparing for the interview and like putting together questions, I was like I actually did not know what it stood for either. So it stands for wireless fidelity. That's what Wi-Fi stands for. So the next one may get easier or not. I can't. I can't promise anything. So, kids, wi-fi, wireless fidelity. If you ever ask this question in school, maybe you now have the answer. If not, I apologize. So question two who is considered the father or mother of AI, or grandfather, however you want to look at it?

Mike Rizkalla: 37:16

I don't remember the person's name, but they're from Montreal, if I remember correctly. Is that right?

Amber Ivey: 37:21

Their name is John McCarthy. John McCarthy, again, something I did not remember and also did not know. I was like wait, who is this person? And then, last but not least, this one was also hard for me, because I would have said someone else who created technically the first smartphone, technically the first smartphone.

Mike Rizkalla: 37:42

Oh, I think it was. Was it BlackBerry?

Amber Ivey: 37:45

So it actually was IBM. I guess they created some technology beforehand. That was considered the first smartphone. So yeah, again, I would have said BlackBerry before I would have said anything related to IBM. That's just not who I was thinking about when that came up. But hopefully, kids, you have learned something new with this piece. The other piece, mike, we do something here, is called two truths and a Dream. So you're going to tell us two interesting facts about your career, but then one of them is a dream job, and then we'll give space for the kids to listen out and to try to guess which ones are true and which one is the dream. So feel free to provide two facts about your career and then one dream, and then I'll play around and try to guess. I also am possibly cheating because I know your bio, so try to use something that's not in your bio.

Mike Rizkalla: 38:33

Oh my God. Okay, let me try to think here. Let me try to think.

Amber Ivey: 38:35

If not, that's totally fine too. The kids can play.

Mike Rizkalla: 38:39

Okay, so the first thing in my career I was part of the team that created the one of the very first ever photo networks, the team that created the one of the very first ever photo networks. I also had the good fortune of working at Disney for a period of time, as a Disney Imagineer. Third one is I also performed in a rock band and toured all over the world for over 11 years. There's two truths and a dream. Okay, so which one?

Amber Ivey: 39:07

Okay, so two truths and a dream. You would have got me on the last one. So kids, go ahead and think about it. The first piece was around creating a photo technology, the second is being a Disney Imagineer and the third is traveling the world in a rock band the last 11 years. I'm struggling. Kids, think about it. Which one do you think are the two facts and which one do you think is the dream? For some reason I think that Disney would be the dream, but then I also think you did it because of your history. But then with the third, which is the rock star, I know you said you actually did music, so I'm like you could have done that part-time. So I'm going to say Disney is the dream job.

Mike Rizkalla: 39:48

You got us. That was. That was the one I always wanted to be. I actually got a chance to meet with very famous Disney Imagineer one of the SPPs there when I first presented our Snorble well, pre-snorble, pre-snorble concept and it was a really incredible experience and I really I felt connected there. I felt like this was a place of. It was like a playground of creatives and technologists just doing weird things all day long. I love that. I would love to be a part of that at some point in my career who knows?

Amber Ivey: 40:20

And y'all are creating a version of that with Snorble. That's the way I see it, because y'all are creating a place where people can imagine and dream big in technology. But also Disney is super cool and I would love to also just be in the room with people who are doing cool stuff like that.

Mike Rizkalla: 40:35

He actually gave me the best compliment I ever had, which he said it looks like you've already built an Imagineering world for yourself, just not here, like because with my team and everything else, I was like that was a really nice compliment. You don't have to say that to me, but it was really cool. That was a really cool experience when I was younger.

Amber Ivey: 40:56

That is amazing. So before we go, I always want to get advice for kids who may be interested in learning more about AI and robotics and these tools. What is some advice you would love to leave behind?

Mike Rizkalla: 41:03

Don't be afraid to make a mistake and try again. That is just the best advice I can give you. It's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to try again, and it's okay to be frustrated and then come back to it later. But the one thing that's not okay is never give up on trying.

Amber Ivey: 41:29

That's such a good point and something we need to instill in all of us so that we don't grow up into adults who feel like we can't make mistakes. So I really appreciate that. Is there anything you would like to share to our listeners before we head out today?

Mike Rizkalla: 41:39

So we just started selling Snorble at wwwsnorblecom, so we're learning more and more about how people want to use it and it's our goal to make sure that it is the best it can be for all of our littles and their families. So please do keep in touch, if you do have one, and let us know how we can make it better and the things you would hope to see.

Amber Ivey: 42:01

I love it and, for those who are listening, we'll have a link to Snorbel and how to get in contact with Mike and his team in the show notes. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today and thank you to all the listeners for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe to AI for Kids and stay curious.

Mike Rizkalla: 42:16

Thank you, Amber.

Amber Ivey: 42:18

Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.