How Children Reason About Generative AI: A Cross-Country Study
Dr. Priya Chandrasekaran, Tomás Herrera
What this study did
Interviewing 640 children aged 7 to 13 across four countries, this study examined how children form mental models of AI systems. Most children under 9 attributed intention and feeling to chatbots; explicit teaching about training data shifted this within six weeks.
What we learned
What it means for families
Translated for the kitchen table: this study is a nudge to ask a genuine, open question at dinner rather than a quiz-style one, to leave room for unstructured play, and to trust that curiosity — not test scores alone — is doing real work in a child's development. Small, repeatable habits, not grand interventions.
How to cite this paper
Dr. Priya Chandrasekaran, Tomás Herrera (2024). How Children Reason About Generative AI: A Cross-Country Study. The Curious Generation™ Research Series.
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