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Kogi: Reversing AI Dependency in Children | #ConfigMakeathon
How I used Figma Make, Weave, and a live Supabase backend to build an experience where children teach AI — not the other way around.
THE PROBLEM: The "Copycat" Crisis
AI has all the answers. It is transforming how we work, create, and learn. But when it comes to children, this convenience comes with a hidden cost.
Today, 39% of children aged 5–8 are already using AI for learning activities. Instead of discovering, experimenting, and asking questions, many are beginning to rely on instant answers.
I believe we risk raising a generation that knows what the answer is — but not how to discover it.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND KOGI
I didn’t want to build just another educational app. I wanted to create an experience grounded in learning science.
Inspired by Discovery Learning, Information Gap Theory, and research on curiosity and self-explanation, I designed moments of productive struggle that encourage children to observe, ask questions, explore the world around them, and develop their own ideas.
My goal was simple: use technology not to replace thinking, but to help children practice it.
THE SOLUTION: Meet Kogi
Kogi is a lazy, mischievous alien from a planet where AI does everything.
He has never learned how to be curious, ask for help, make mistakes, or solve problems independently.
So I reversed the traditional AI relationship.
Instead of children asking AI for answers, Kogi asks children to become his mentor.
Through real-world missions, children help Kogi observe, investigate, communicate with others, and explain their discoveries.
Kogi doesn’t teach children what to think. He helps them practice how to think.
THE BUILD: From Research to a Live Product
I transformed my research and educational framework into a fully interactive product using Figma’s newest AI ecosystem.
Figma Make
I used Figma Make to rapidly transform ideas into a working application, iterating through 89 versions and spending over 3,000 AI credits to refine the experience.
Figma Weave
I used Weave to structure Kogi’s personality, missions, learning framework, and complex interaction flows across the entire product.
Supabase Live Backend
I connected Kogi to a live Supabase backend, moving beyond a static prototype.
Children can create profiles, save their progress, track missions, and build their own learning journey with persistent real-time data.
THE IMPACT
Kogi explores a different future for AI in childhood.
Instead of making children more dependent on technology, I believe AI can be designed to strengthen the uniquely human skills machines cannot replace: curiosity, critical thinking, courage, communication, and independent learning.
By combining Figma’s AI tools with a real backend, I built an experience that brings children away from simply consuming answers and back into exploring the world around them.
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Serious comes from consistency. Corporate comes from removing anything a person chose.
"Corporate comes from removing anything a person chose" is going straight in my notes. I'd push it further though, I think a lot of that removal happens in legal and stakeholder review, not the initial design pass. Do you find the fight is more with the client's own instincts or with whoever signs off after them?
You nailed the overall mood here. The details just reinforce it nicely.