Artificial intelligence is already part of family life, invited or not. From smart cribs and baby monitors to AI-powered toys, tutors, and companions designed for toddlers, innovation has raced ahead of regulation, leaving parents to make choices that will reverberate for decades without clear, evidence-based guidance. Throughout human history, we could assume that children were 100 percent “human raised.” As AI’s capabilities surge, that certainty is vanishing.
In Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity, and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI, pediatric surgeon and early brain development researcher Dana Suskind, MD (FAN ’15, ’22), sets aside the question of whether AI is good or bad to ask a more urgent one: what does human development require, and where does AI help or harm that process? Drawing on decades of research into how human connection builds the developing brain, she shows that while AI can mimic the surface of interaction, it cannot replace the messy, deeply human exchanges that build language, attachment, and social understanding.
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