Parenting in the Presence of Persistent AI

Persistent AI changes the parenting problem because it is not just software. To a child, it can become a recurring social presence: a voice in the room, a tutor that "knows me," or a companion that remembers what happened yesterday. That shift, from tool to quasi-relationship, is where the real developmental, ethical, and cultural stakes sit. Research on smart speakers and social robots already shows that younger children personify conversational systems, express affection toward them, and sometimes treat them as friends or family members; experiments also show that children can trust robots as much as, and sometimes more than, humans in specific tasks.

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