Is AI Rewiring Your Kid’s Brain?
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Why is AI considered more than just a toy for kids?
This is not a toy. This is the most sophisticated technological transformative tool that our society has ever seen, and we can't treat it like a toy.
I'm not at all anti-AI, but let's use it to enhance us, not to replace us.
No
Today on the show, we're talking about AI and kids' brains with Dr. Dana Suskin, a leading expert on early brain development. But first, I want to welcome my longtime producer and good friend, Ben Tinker. Ben Tinker, welcome to Chasing Life. So excited to have you here. Thanks for having me. I should just point out we've worked together for 15 years. Um we've obviously had a lot of professional escapades over the years. But we know each other personally as well.
Uh, when we started working together, your youngest daughter was two years old. I remember carrying her around. She's now about to go to college, which is crazy. And I had no kids when we started working together.
Right. And and I think it's safe to say that a lot of our conversations, uh, you know, we talk about work stuff, but we also talk about life stuff a lot. And I think that's part of the reason I was excited for you to join the podcast today and talk about this particular topic. You know, I'll tell you quickly something that happened to me the other day. So I'm walking down the hall by one of my daughter's rooms, and I hear her having this conversation. I can't hear what she's saying, but I I hear the conversation, her voice is very animated, she's laughing, and the person she's talking to, equally animated, super engaging, sounds like a a like a best friend type person. So after a while I knock on the door and I'm like, who's who's visiting?
And she was talking to Chat GPT. Wow. She was talking to Chat GPT. I I'm her dad, and I thought it was a real conversation. And this several things occurred to me. One is that this is weird, to be just totally honest. It was just weird. I, you know, I that's not how I grew up. The idea that you could be having that kind of conversation with a bunch of wires and circuit boards. But number two, I thought, am I ever going to be able to replicate that as a human? I mean, this was like a best. friend who just never gets tired and super engaging and all that sort of stuff. I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at that.
You are good at that.
But you know, I'm a human. I get tired. That thing's around for her whenever she wants. It was
wild. And is is repeating back to her what she wants to hear, right? And not getting challeng I mean, like like you said, we've known each other a long time. You challenge your kids and if you're not getting challenged by uh, you know, this this model, this computer that's talking back to her. I mean, that's that's giving you exactly what you want without any friction.
I asked her like what what are you doing? Right. Reasonable question. You know what she said?
Get out.
She probably did say get out first and threw something at me, but then she eventually said I'm just rotting.
What what did she what did she mean? I know everyone uses that word differently, but what did what did you take it to mean in that? Well what
I took it to mean was that she was she knew she wasn't doing anything important. Um it wasn't like she was studying or doing something like that.
What happened when the host’s daughter talked to ChatGPT?
She was just sort of talking to this AI platform. If I had to sort of contextualize it to something, it was more like self-care. Like I'm just taking a little time for myself. This is my time for myself, s sort of thing, which I think is important, actually. I think everyone should take time for themselves. You know, uh one of our producers the other day was saying couch potato. And I think inherently you think, well, that's not good being a couch potato, but at the same time, we know that we all need to sort of decompress a little bit, you know, watch mindless television.
to an AI platform.
This is like the the friend, like you said, who's just paying attention to you and and nothing else. And that I think is the thing that's hard about this is as humans, we have a lot going on. There's a lot we're trying to pay attention to day to day.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is AI considered more than just a toy for kids?
0:00–2:56
2
What happened when the host’s daughter talked to ChatGPT?
2:56–6:48
3
How does AI’s “always‑right” behavior affect children’s learning?
6:48–11:03
4
What is the difference between brain “rot” and brain “stunting” in early development?
11:03–15:33
5
Why are friction and “productive struggle” essential for healthy brain growth?
15:33–20:22
6
How can parents teach kids to critically evaluate AI responses?
20:22–23:34
7
What frameworks (Detect, Hope) help families choose safe AI platforms?
23:34–28:01
8
What practical steps should parents take right now to protect their children’s brain development?
28:01–30:59
Speakers
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