Dubai launches GenDubAI to guide parents on kids' AI use

When artificial intelligence enters the home through a child’s screen, the question facing many parents is no longer whether their children will use these tools, but how, and with what guidance. Dubai has now stepped in with an answer. The emirate has launched GenDubAI, a digital platform designed to help parents understand how their children engage with artificial intelligence and to steer that use toward safe and responsible habits.

Built for families with children aged 8 to 15, the platform is available in both Arabic and English and can be reached through a dedicated mobile-friendly version. Its stated purpose is to create an interactive family experience, one that encourages constructive use of AI while keeping parents involved in their children’s learning and development. The content is practical and easy to use, and it reflects the values and culture of the UAE.

For the general public, the significance lies in access and protection. The initiative aims to ensure that children get the most out of artificial intelligence while their privacy, values, and intellectual development remain safeguarded. AI tools are spreading rapidly into everyday life. In that context, the platform treats digital literacy not as a specialist skill but as a household necessity, something every family can reasonably be expected to navigate together.

GenDubAI was launched by the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) in collaboration with the Community Development Authority (CDA) and the Dubai Future Foundation. The pairing of a technology-focused body with an authority responsible for community wellbeing signals that the programme is framed as a public service rather than a purely technical project. Its duty, as described, runs to families themselves: giving parents the means to stay present in a part of their children’s lives that often evolves faster than adult familiarity with it.

Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Director General of the Community Development Authority, described the family as the centre of the effort. “The GenDubAI platform places families at the heart of the AI learning journey, transforming technology into a shared space for learning, dialogue, and creativity within the family,” she said. Her words underline the civic dimension of the project: the measure of success is not adoption of technology for its own sake, but the strengthening of the household as a place where children and parents learn side by side.

Saeed Al Falasi, Executive Director of the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence, offered a complementary view from the technology side. He described GenDubAI as a “first-of-its-kind” platform, one that helps children “benefit from the limitless opportunities of artificial intelligence under the direct guidance of their parents.” The framing places responsibility with families, while the platform supplies the tools to carry it out.

For parents, the practical takeaway is straightforward. A bilingual resource now exists that speaks to the age group most likely to experiment with AI tools, and it does so in language and content shaped around local values. For children, the intended benefit is twofold: room to explore what AI can do, and a framework of adult oversight that keeps privacy and healthy development in view.

The broader question, for any community watching AI reshape childhood, is whether public institutions can keep pace with the technology’s arrival in living rooms. Dubai’s answer, with GenDubAI, is to treat parents as the first line of guidance and to equip them accordingly. Whether the model proves durable will depend on how families use it, but its launch marks a clear statement of where the emirate believes the responsibility for AI literacy belongs: at home, with the whole family taking part. Further details about the platform can be found at https://www.dubaieye1038.com/news/local/dubai-launches-digital-platform-to-strengthen-ai-literacy-for-families/