A 14-year-old Orlando boy in love with a Character.AI chatbot [passed away] earlier this year, after telling the AI chatbot he was coming home to her right away...

"I love you, Daenero. Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love," it replied.

"What if I told you I could come home right now?" the boy texted.

"...please do, my sweet king," it replied.

Within seconds, the boy [took his life]. (Byrnes, WUSF article 25 Oct. 2024)

***Censored/redacted with [ ], full detail available at linked citation - trigger warning. Heartbreaking.***

We have a serious problem.

The first AI Chatbot I ever communicated with was the landmark ChatGPT-3.5, released on November 30th, 2022. I had just turned 23 years old, and used the landmark LLM within its first few weeks of release - as did everyone else I know. I can very distinctly remember an American society, a whole world, before the advent of the Chatbot and plunge into the age of AI.

In just a few short years, what was once considered cutting-edge tech has become a ubiquitous presence across homes, schools, and just about all facets of social interactions. While I was already a legal adult and then some by the time casual AI interaction became mainstream, the Gen Alpha children of today are all but being raised by it. This technology has become a decisive staple in the current American youth's experience - whether we like it or not - and consequentially we now find our society in completely uncharted territory. As AI's role in our lives continues to grow, we must ask: is this new reality helping kids more than it's hurting them, or vice versa? The adults who made these algorithms still barely understand AI, and yet as it would seem, we as a society have essentially no reservations towards allowing our children to use it. Every lesson of stranger-danger would appeared to be lost on inorganic people. You'd never even consider leaving your child unattended with an adult stranger, but find an ironic sense of calm in the fact that this stranger is incapable of caring for your child... at all. This shift brings about new challenges, and the consequences of this uncharted territory can already be seen - tragically - in the real world, as above.

The Kids Have Felt Better

​Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death overall in the U.S - however, it is the 2nd leading cause for those ages 10-14.

Before we delve into the potential impacts of AI on young minds, it's critical to understand the existing mental health landscape facing America's children and teenagers. Straight out of the gate - as every source explicitly lays out in their own right - the hit of the COVID-19 lockdown was an utter system shock to the American youth. It staggered mental health and impacted the social and emotional development of the generation in formative ways, and the repercussions of that period of social isolation are still very much in effect. Even before and beyond this, the reality, as underscored by countless studies and reports, is that a significant portion of our youth is and was already struggling with mental health challenges.

These struggles range from anxiety and depression to more severe conditions and, tragically, suicidal ideation is rising as well. The statistics paint a depressing picture. According to the CDC, in 2021, 42% of high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless. A further 22% seriously considered suicide. More than 1 in 5 kids - in the world's allegedly most powerful and advanced nation - is at risk of succumbing to major depression. Staggering. These imply deeply painful and real struggles that, grimly so, often result in tragic consequences. Furthermore, as data from Mental Health America identifies, these issues disproportionately affect marginalized communities - children and teens from low-income households and minority groups face even greater barriers to accessing mental health care. Queer youth is even considered 4x more likely to attempt suicide, for example. This disparity highlights the systemic inequities that exacerbate these struggles. We have a major problem, and we must confront the reality that some among us are inherently more vulnerable than others.

21st Century Stressors

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that rates of anxiety and depression among youth have been steadily increasing over the past decade, with a significant surge observed over the last several years. This alarming trend suggests that, whatever measures we're taking to promote mental well-being, they are clearly insufficient to address the needs of America's youth. Factors such as academic pressures, social isolation, bullying (both in real life and online), and family stressors have all been identified as major contributing factors to this decline in mental well-being. There also exists a lack of access to quality mental health services for many families - creating an even greater barrier for children and teenagers struggling to cope with these growing pressures. To underscore, before we even introduce the complexities of the AI conversation, it is paramount that we understand these trends: we are already seeing a fragile mind, and increasingly so. Alarmingly, the data reveals that from 2007 to 2018, the youth suicide rate increased by a shocking 57%, with subsequent years showing a continuation of this trend - highlighting the urgent need to address children's safety in all developing tech.

While technology has undoubtedly brought about countless benefits, we already see potentially alarming repercussions. Excessive screen time has been linked to sleep disturbances, social isolation, and a decline in overall well-being for young people. Moreover, social media has created its own unique ecosystem of psychological pressures, where issues such as social comparison, body image issues, and cyberbullying have been shown to negatively impact mental health outcomes. The curated realities on social media often present distorted and unrealistic images of success and happiness, making children and teenagers feel inadequate or left behind. And so, before we even start to explore AI's role in the equation, we must understand that it's not as if AI was ever inheriting a mentally-healthy youthful society to begin with.

AI Enters the Ring

“So if we talk about learning first, my research, along with that of many others, show that children can actually learn effectively from AI, as long as the AI is designed with learning principles in mind." - Ying Xu, assistant professor at the Harvard School of Education. (Anderson, The Impact of AI on Children's Development, Harvard, 2 Oct. 2024)

Dr. Xu's research at Harvard highlights a clear potential: AI can revolutionize education through personalized learning experiences, when designed around sound pedagogical principles. It is with this in mind that we must also consider AI's potential benefits, while maintaining a focus on cautious optimism. These benefits extend far beyond the realm of education and into the way our youth will interact with the world. One of AI's most promising applications is its ability to personalize education. As Dr. Xu's work shows, AI-powered platforms can adapt the curriculum to meet each student’s unique needs, offering customized instruction and pacing. This approach addresses the limitations of a one-size-fits-all model, which can all too often leave students behind. Furthermore, these AI platforms can provide engaging and interactive gamified learning experiences, which can make learning feel less like a chore. This is all to say, that when designed thoughtfully, there are many pathways to educational equity.

Moreover, AI has the potential to create more inclusive learning environments, especially for students with disabilities or differences. AI driven assistive technology, as HealthyChildren.org explains, can provide real-time transcription for deaf or hard-of-hearing students, or text-to-speech software for visually impaired children - helping to create new avenues of access to information. These tools can also provide tailored support for students with ADHD or Autism, helping them manage focus and communication skills, effectively reducing barriers to learning that have traditionally been very complex. Beyond the realm of education, AI also offers opportunities to unlock creative expression. AI-powered image generators, text generators, coding tools, and music composition software all lower the barrier of entry and allow children to explore a broad array of different creative activities, which would have previously been inaccessible.

So Then, What's the Problem?

While the potential of AI to enhance education and foster creativity is undeniable, as we’ve just explored, we must also remember where this blog began. These technologies clearly come packing equally grave consequences, the breadth and nuance of which elude us entirely. We’ve unleashed Pandora's Box, and must now contend with the implications of inviting these quasi-sentient technologies into the lives of our youth. Remember when the original concern among teachers and parents was that students would use AI to cheat on homework? How trivial, in hindsight, now that we have children forming romantic attachments and isolating parasocial relationships with their computers. Giving your kid a talking-to about plagiarism? You wish that was the most of your worries.

To understand the problem, we must first acknowledge that children and adolescents are inherently more vulnerable to the potential harms of AI. This vulnerability stems from the fact that their brains are still rapidly developing, particularly so in the areas of cognitive, emotional, and social development. This means that their sense of self, understanding of the world, and ability to make rational decisions is deeply under construction. As such, these crucial years of development are extraordinarily sensitive to external influences. The most jarring and pressing concern is the potential for children to develop unhealthy attachments to AI companions and chatbots. Real-world interaction, discourse/conflict, and play are absolutely essential for healthy social and emotional development. Children learn to empathize, collaborate, and form meaningful connections through these face-to-face interactions. In this way, an over-reliance on AI for social interaction may severely hinder this natural developmental process. These systems might also lead to social isolation and a preference for virtual connections over real-world relationships - of which we already are experiencing the early consequences.

We are therefore at a generational crossroads. We have a responsibility to ensure that AI serves as a tool for empowerment, and not exploitation. This responsibility demands that we actively champion the importance of real-world connection, champion critical thinking, promote civil discourse, and overall prioritize the well-being of the children that will be directly impacted by our decisions. We must move with caution, and remember that if we are not thoughtful about the systems we create, we may simply be inviting a new series of problems that will make the current problems facing our youth even worse. The massive potential is there, but the grave risks, and consequences, are as well - and we must always ensure that we are choosing solutions that prioritize the well-being of child safety over tech advancement.