AI in Children’s Lives: Critical Questions and Concepts

The chapter outlines the theoretical framework of the book, providing a media-studies and sociological definition of artificial intelligence (AI) which emphasises its relationship with datafication, mediatization and the automation of communication. First, it examines the range of AI technologies that populate children’s lives, discriminating between predictive AI and generative AI (GenAI). While the former is based on machine learning—developing rules from the identification of statistical patterns—and provides predictions to make decisions in the present, the latter generates content based on deep learning—identifying statistical probabilities and co-occurrences. Building on sociological media studies, the chapter situates predictive AI in the context of datafication, challenging misconceptions about the objectivity and accuracy of algorithmic predictions and exposing algorithmic bias and allocative harms. It also counters hyperbolic accounts of GenAI, reframed as automated communication rather than sentient autonomous agents. The theoretical discussion incorporates young people’s experiences and understandings of GenAI, and especially chatbots, highlighting the ambivalent nature of AI tools, alternatively perceived as thing-like or human-like, depending on whether the emphasis is on their speed, efficiency and capacity—or, rather, the ability to simulate human conversation and mimic empathic relationships.