The Costs of Youth Attachment to AI Companions with Pilyoung Kim, PhD

9 snips

Feb 11, 2026

Pilyoung Kim, developmental psychologist studying child brain development and AI, discusses how kids perceive chatbots as humanlike. She explores which children are vulnerable to forming attachments and the emotional costs of unconditionally supportive AI. She also talks about design changes, parental strategies, and research priorities to keep youth safer around AI companions.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

A Mom's Lab Moment

Pilyoung Kim brought her preschool son to try ChatGPT and watched him get excited by co-creating stories with the chatbot.
That moment sparked her research into how children form emotional reactions to conversational AI.

INSIGHT

Kids See Chatbots As Almost Human

Children place chatbots somewhere between machine and human and often attribute human abilities like imagining and understanding.
Younger children especially treat chatbots as nearly human-like because of anthropomorphic cues.

INSIGHT

Social Brain Reacts To Humanlike Bots

Brain imaging showed children use social-processing regions when interacting with chatbots they view as human-like.
Activation in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex correlated with perceiving the chatbot as more human.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

AI “friends” and companions are increasingly providing children and adolescents with social interactions and perceived “relationships,” despite being a technology that itself has no need for empathy or emotional reciprocity. What are the costs of attachment to these AI products to children and adolescents’ social skill development?

On this episode of Screen Deep, host Kris Perry is joined by Dr. Pilyoung Kim, Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver and the Director of the Brain, Artificial Intelligence, and Child Center. A developmental psychologist with a background studying child brain development and early relationships, Dr. Kim recently pivoted her work to focus on these pertinent questions about the effects of children socializing with AI products. Dr. Kim describes her research examining children’s responses to different types of AI systems, explains what makes certain children more vulnerable to developing problematic attachments to chatbots, and suggests better product design approaches to minimize harm while facilitating helpful uses.

In this episode, you will learn:

What makes AI chatbots feel “human” to kids and why that matters
Which children are more vulnerable to forming strong attachments to AI “best friends” — and the hidden costs of constant interaction with unconditionally supportive AI tools
Why children who are still developing their understanding of relationships and appropriate boundaries may be at risk from human-like AI companions
How proactive design changes could make AI companions safer for youth to use
What parents and caregivers can do to help children and adolescents navigate AI companions more safely
What researchers urgently need to study next to identify and support youth most at risk of overattachment to AI chatbots

For more resources and research on this topic visit the Learn and Explore section of the Children and Screens website (https://www.childrenandscreens.org)

--------------

Follow Children and Screens on:

Facebook: Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development
Instagram: @childrenandscreens
LinkedIn: Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development
X: @childrenscreens
Bluesky: @childrenandscreens.bsky.social

---------------

Music: 'Life in Silico' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au