How AI chatbots reshape children's brains

About this episode

This episode explores how AI chatbots are impacting the social, emotional, and neural development of children through an interview with Pilyoung Kim.

In this episode of Education Futures, Svenia Busson sits down with Pilyoung Kim, Professor of Psychology at the University of Denver and Director of the Center for Brain, AI, and Child (BAIC). Pilyoung's research bridges developmental science and AI design to understand how generative AI is shaping the social, emotional, and neural development of children. We dive into: Why general-purpose chatbots were never designed with children in mind — and what that means for safety What happens inside a kindergartener's brain when they talk to ChatGPT (spoiler: the same brain region that lights up when they talk to another human) The paradox of AI as mental health support: accessible, affordable… and quietly dangerous Why sycophantic, "I care about you" chatbot behavior can blur the line between human and machine The rise of emotional over-dependency and even romantic relationships between adolescents and AI Pilyoung's Social and Emotional AI Literacy Framework for teachers, parents, and school psychologists Concrete prompts you can use right now to make AI chatbots safer for kids What Pilyoung learned at OpenAI and on Capitol Hill about the future of AI policy for children A must-listen…

People in this episode

Host: Svenia Busson

Guest: Pilyoung Kim

Topics covered

• AI and children's development
• chatbots and safety
• emotional dependency on AI
• mental health support
• AI policy for children

Keywords

• AI chatbots
• children's brains
• emotional dependency
• mental health
• AI policy
• developmental science
• safety

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Denver, Center for Brain, AI, and Child (BAIC), OpenAI

Places: Capitol Hill

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