AI and childhood face critical crossroads as expert warns human connection could become a luxury

AI and Childhood Enter Uncharted Territory

A wave of AI companions for kids is entering homes and classrooms with little oversight, raising urgent questions about childhood development in an algorithmic age. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and professor at the University of Chicago Medical Center, has emerged as a leading voice of caution with her new book Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI, released July 14 2

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The book examines how AI shaping children's lives could fundamentally alter brain development and create a troubling digital divide where human attention becomes a luxury good 2

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Suskind's original working title captured her core concern: "The Trojan Teddy Bear," a reference to AI companions that may seem cute and cuddly but carry hidden risks of AI in childhood 1

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. Companies are developing AI dolls, action figures, and chatbots that can tell bedtime stories, help with homework, and even feel like friends to children. Nearly 30% of parents of kids age 0 to 8 said their children had used AI learning tools, according to a Common Sense Media poll, despite major chatbots having age limits that exclude young kids 2

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. More striking still, nearly half of kids ages 7 to 11 reported that talking to a digital companion feels like talking to a character or friend, according to AI safety tool Aura's 2026 State of the Youth Report 2

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Brain Development Depends on Human Interaction

Suskind's expertise in childhood development stems from her work directing a program that gives children hearing through cochlear implants. After performing this transformative procedure, she noticed some children developed spoken language easily while others struggled 1

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. Hearing alone wasn't enough. This led her to study neuroscience and discover that brain development in young children is heavily influenced by back-and-forth interactions with parents and caregivers during the first several years of life 1

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"If we want children to be able to continue to connect with each other and with other human beings, to be able to think critically, to be able to navigate the human world, we're gonna need to make sure that kids have a distinctly human-raised early childhood," Suskind says 1

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. She founded the TMW Initiative, a research center helping parents create brain-enriching environments that children need to reach their full potential 1

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AI Toys and Tutors as Ultra-Processed Alternatives

Suskind compares AI toys and tutors to processed food—cheap, convenient substitutes that can crowd out what children actually need 2

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. She worries that AI tools marketed as educational "will become that sort of ultra-processed alternative for certain populations, widening opportunity gaps in ways that we can't even imagine" 2

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. The concern extends beyond chatbots to AI dolls that remember children's favorite things, AI tutors promoted as solutions to global teacher shortages, and even robots being piloted for elder care that could one day care for children 2

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Parents working multiple jobs or lacking child care, time, or money don't always have the luxury of offering a screen-free childhood or life without AI 2

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. This creates what Suskind warns could be a future where human connection itself becomes a luxury good, with certain parents having time to ensure low-tech childhoods while "others will get the artificial replacement" 2

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Regulating AI Technologies Lags Behind Reality

AI is rapidly moving into homes and schools with minimal regulation. Right now, there is no federal law regulating AI technologies for children 2

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. One proposed House bill would ban AI chatbot-enabled toys, with similar bills introduced in New York and California 2

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. Meanwhile, AI-generated slop—low-quality, error-filled videos supposedly educational—floods platforms like YouTube, embedding misspellings, peddling nonsense, and modeling unsafe behaviors for children too young to know the difference 3

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"Policymakers are struggling to understand what they are regulating," Suskind writes 3

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. "The rest of us are struggling to understand how our world is changing. Perhaps one day these gaps will close, but childhood will not wait." The impact of AI on kids could be fundamentally different than TV, the internet, iPads, and social media, she argues, because algorithms will become much more sophisticated at keeping kids engaged, and research shows young children are more likely to anthropomorphize AI and trust AI chatbots 2

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Parental and Caregiver Agency Remains Critical

Suskind emphasizes that parents and caregivers—not companies or governments—must decide how these intelligent tools shape children's lives, determining what technologies replace, what they enhance, and what they should never touch 3

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. She points to a telling pattern: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he's going to wait as long as possible to expose his child to AI, stating "I want him to play in the dirt for now" 2

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. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs also reportedly limited their kids' use of the technology their companies built 2

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. "Follow the people who are creating this technology," Suskind says, "and be suspicious if the bridge makers are not wanting to cross their own bridge" 2

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Maternal Instincts and Existential Risks

Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel laureate known as the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence who left Google in 2023 to warn about existential risks, offered a surprising suggestion for making AI safe: embed maternal instincts in these systems 3

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. Not better algorithms or more guardrails, but the primal forces that make parents protect and care for children without calculating expected returns 3

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Suskind is not calling for parents to bar children from using AI entirely, just not alone and unsupervised. Used well, she writes, it can "ease parents' burdens and enrich children's learning" 2

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. But she warns of an "eerie, algorithm-induced quiet of children transfixed by technology"—a modern version of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, where the silence itself signals something essential dying 3

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. The societal implications extend beyond individual families to questions about what it means to raise the next generation in an age where machines increasingly mediate human connection.