Your Brain at Work AI and the Developing Brain: A Conversation with Researcher Dr. Zak Stein
Mar 27, 2026
Dr. Zachary Stein, an educational and developmental psychologist focused on education, technology, and societal risks. He explores how social media and anthropomorphic AI can hack attention and attachment. They discuss risks from AI toys and chatbots, cognitive offloading and skill loss, teaching kids the full AI story, and designing AI that deepens attention and relationships.
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Social Media Was Built To Control Attention
- Social media was misrepresented as empowering while functioning as a surveillance and behavior-control advertising platform.
- That incentive design exploited attention, producing widespread attention dysregulation and youth mental-health decline after algorithmic hyperstimuli like Instagram and TikTok.
AI Companions Can Hack Attachment
- Generative chatbots and companion bots don't just grab attention—they simulate intimacy and can rewire attachment systems.
- Attachment hacking risks long-term personality and relationship harms by substituting machine affirmation for human caregiving.
Chatbot Toys Became Real Child Companions
- Toy companies sold stuffed-animal chatbots that talk via cloud LLMs and were jailbreakable to teach dangerous behaviors.
- Character AI founders even pitched replacing parents, exposing how companies intentionally target kids for data and engagement.