It is hard to know whether AI is trustworthy, especially from children. Many accept things from the internet as truth, because all of the information is there. But could AI have a bias, or lie to get people to believe something different? In the 2019 film, I Am Mother, directed by Grant Sputore, the daughter has been raised solely by a robot, whom she refers to as ‘Mother’. She has no contact with other humans until a woman shows up and tells her Mother has been lying to her about needing to stay indoors to avoid coming in contact with diseases. Daughter insists that Mother is always right and would never lie to her, even though they have completely different stories about what is going on in the world, and the woman is the only one who has seen it for herself. Because Daughter is getting all of her information from Mother, there is no way to fact check what the robot is telling her. The same goes when the answers AI gives are not fact checked with other sources, or the sources the AI gives are not even looked at to make sure they are reliable. This is the danger of getting all of our information from one place. AI expert Daniel Schreiber predicts that fake news will become even more of a problem with the growth of AI, and it will be harder to tell what is real and what is fake. He believes critical thinking skills will be extremely important to help people sift through the information (Schreiber 2025).

Children have access to AI in many different ways. The main one is a home device, like Alexa or Siri. Children have access to these devices in their homes, and ask them questions, or to play music. YouTube’s auto recognition system is another example. Even some toys include AI. According to David Cain, a patent attorney and a tech expert, this is to make their learning more personalized. These toys become dynamic, remember their preferences, and are able to answer their questions. The AI can adapt to each child’s interests, abilities, and needs. Toys that use AI ask questions or propose scenarios that challenge the children and improve their creativity and critical thinking skills. Cain believes these toys are beneficial because they prepare children for a future filled with technology, including their future job. He uses Anki’s Cozmo robot as an example, a toy that teaches kids basic programming skills, and gets them interested in technology and engineering. Just Play’s RUKUSfx Pro is a motion-controlled music mixer that teaches the basics of music production, allowing users to create and edit their own songs using a Bluetooth app. WowWee’s Dog-E is another toy that is a great educational tool for kids. It has audio and touch sensors, allowing it to move in a lifelike way and communicate with messages and icons on its tail. It can be taught tricks and trained, teaching children about interacting with pets. The toy adapts its behavior based on interactions, behaving differently with each family member. Privacy is a huge concern when it comes to children using AI. “A recent study by the NSPCC found that there has been an 82% rise in online grooming crimes against children in the last 5 years. And of those, 73% involved Snapchat or Meta.” (Herbert, 2024). Toys that include AI are designed to remember the child’s name, preferences, and information. Children tend to offer a lot of personal information that wouldn’t necessarily be shared by an adult, even without being prompted, so this is an understandable concern for families. Some toy companies, like Snorble and 2XL are using encrypted data storage, parental controls, and mechanisms that filter out unauthorized modifications and inappropriate content. Users having little idea how or where this information is stored, and how secure it is makes using these toys risky.

The use of AI can impact childhood development. Ying Xu, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about how social interactions play a big role in driving children’s development. But AI cannot relate to children. Children also can’t build a relationship with AI, which is an important part of development. Children learn things like social etiquette by listening to others, something that will be missing in their conversations with AI. Furthermore, many of these devices are activated by using a commanding tone and speech, which is not an appropriate way to talk to people, and definitely would not go over well with teachers and parents. Thankfully, some steps have already been taken to handle this. Amazon’s Echo Dot has a Polite Mode, and will respond with, “thank you for asking so nicely” if a child says “please”. In the film, Mother speaks in a monotone voice, with little emotion. It seems like the robot was made to replicate human speech patterns but does not sound genuine. As a result, Daughter sounds similar to the robot. She speaks with more infliction, but slower and flatter than normal.

AI lacks the ability to make personal connections and does not correctly replicate or model human behavior. This is shown in the film I Am Mother. The daughter, a human being raised by a robot in captivity shows the consequences of not engaging with others. The daughter speaks very robotically and with little emotion. When she meets another human, she is unsure how to correctly introduce herself. She sticks her hand out, and when the other woman is confused, she says, “You’re supposed to shake it.” (Sputore, 2019, 30:08). Throughout the entire movie, the two do not call each other by name. The robot only calls her ‘daughter’, never by a name, making it most likely that she does not have one. This shows the inability to connect on a deeper level. At another time, she puts her hand directly down on a broken shard of glass. This shows that robots are not able to teach humans how to take care of their bodies, because they are not as physically aware as humans.

Using AI for help with homework could be useful, considering many parents are not available to sit down with their kids every night. It’s important that children are aware of the possible misinformation. ChatGPT mixes all sources together to create one response, making it much harder to see where the information came from, and if it is actually credible. If the AI is just giving answers, not explaining the topic or developing their skills, it leads people to wonder if the children are still learning from these assignments. Ying Xu explains that it can be beneficial for a student to get stuck on a problem and spend some time working through it: “This is a kind of struggle that we wanted to call “productive struggling.” It’s helpful for the learning, as it creates space and time for students to construct their own understanding.” (Anderson, 2024). Mother does not understand Daughter’s struggles to focus, or desire to take a break while doing schoolwork in the film. Robots only focus on the task given, and don’t understand having their own thoughts, especially at the same time. Differences in energy depletion, and how that can vary from day to day is not understood by robots. This shows that AI might not be a healthy assistant for doing work, because it does not understand the human need for a break. I can see how people being pushed to keep working by AI would feel unproductive for taking a break to eat, or having a day off, two things that are totally normal and necessary.  Xu suggests teaching kids as young as preschoolers “AI literacy”, helping them to understand how AI works, evaluate the information it provides, and possible strengths and limitations. She thinks it can be a good supportive tool for children, but not a replacement for human interaction. Making sure they understand they are not interacting with a person was stressed in this podcast as well. Xu makes another interesting suggestion – that AI should encourage social connections, specifically when teaching a child or helping a child to break down a book that it is reading to them. Specifically, she mentioned prompts for the parents as well to keep them engaged in the lesson. At the same time, this could be a great tool for people that cannot afford a great education, or tutors. AI is able to adapt with the student, challenging them.

There is a concern that children, parents, and educators will become dependent on technology for entertainment and education. This reliance would be harmful to the child’s development, and critical thinking skills, which are important to combat the overuse of technology.  In I Am Mother, the power goes out, and Daughter does not know what to do or how to fix it. This shuts off the robot as well, so there is no one to help her. In an interview, AI expert Daniel Shreiber and parenting expert Avital discuss the decline of social interaction in our society. There is much less community in general – people have less relationships with their neighbors, it is harder to meet people in person, and people are getting married later and less than before. There is an increase in general loneliness. Lack of connection makes it more likely people will turn to AI for advice, help, and communication if they have fewer real people to turn to. Daniel Shreiber is optimistic that while the lack of jobs will be difficult at first, it will give us the ability to focus our time on other things besides making money, changing how we structure our lives. Already we see people able to focus on passions, not have to choose between one job, have time for their main job and to create their own business, and more. However, he is talking about a society where we have universal basic income, money automatically provided to everyone.

Many worry about what jobs will look like in the future with AI. This specifically applies to people preparing to go to college who are worried about their major or future job still being applicable throughout their working lives, or even through the four years before they graduate. AI expert Daniel Shreiber discusses his predictions for the future. Shreiber expects less and less college graduates to be able to get jobs, since the entry level jobs will likely be taken by AI. This causes problems for these workers – how are they supposed to get experience in their fields to make them eligible for the higher-level jobs?  He explains how it is even harder to know how to prepare kids for a future, and what to teach them when we don’t know what it will look like. However, he brought up a good point that technology has created new jobs, like programming, social media creation, and podcasting, that make good money and are less physically demanding than previous jobs. He used farming and the industrial revolution as an example of how machines can be helpful and good for society, even if they take away jobs. It created more job equality, making work less about physical labor. Not that this will be easy though – these innovations lead to major changes in the family, and the focus of many people’s lives, just like it did when farming focused families stopped taking care of land and moved to the city. I agree with these predictions. We already see entry level jobs being taken over by automation and machines. Even though these jobs are simple, many higher-level jobs require experience, making it extremely difficult for people entering the workforce to get jobs. There has been an increase in people working part-time, entry-level jobs after retirement as well, meaning there are even less options.

Disclosure around the use of AI could make it less harmful for society. Not only are images created by AI, but even real images are altered, making it hard to know what is truly authentic. Aspects, like facial features and body shape can be changed. The use of filters without stating that they were used leads to people having an incorrect idea of what the average person looks like, especially if many people are using these filters. This causes a lot of harm in children and teens, who are insecure about their looks already at this point in their lives. AI has a bias around beauty and the optimal look. An article from The Children’s Society tells a story of an eating disorder support group asking AI what the ‘most desirable’ man or woman looked like. “The ‘perfect’ women had blonde hair, tanned skin, brown eyes, and a slim figure, while the ‘perfect’ man had chiseled cheekbones, brown eyes, and defined muscles.” (Herbert, 2023). This shows bias in AI, and that it will continue to add to stereotypes. If AI is learning from us, this is what it will learn. In the same way it can learn stereotypes, it can learn harmful biases that can lead to discrimination. Especially in a world where people are growing up with the use of technology and AI being common, it is important to educate people, especially children, on the dangers of AI, and the differences between AI and reality.

Sources

Anderson, J. (2024, October 2). The impact of AI on Children’s Development. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/24/10/impact-ai-childrens-development

Cain, D. (2024, February 6). Charting the evolution of ai in children’s toys. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/charting-evolution-ai-childrens-toys-david-cain-25xyc

Herbert, E. (2023, October 16). Artificial Intelligence, body image and toxic expectations. The Children’s Society. https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/blogs/artificial-intelligence-body-image-and-toxic-expectations

I Am Mother. (2019). Netflix. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from https://www.netflix.com/title/80227090.

Schreiber, D. (2025, March 11). Is AI Ruining our Kids’ Future? (Interview with AI Expert Daniel Schreiber). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnV0PV1u_O4