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Comment and Technology

Children are being overlooked in conversations about AI

We need to stop ignoring young people's firsthand experience with artificial intelligence. They are already at the sharp end of its development, says Mhairi Aitken

By Mhairi Aitken

8 January 2025

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Adrià Voltà

Next month, world leaders will gather in Paris for the AI Action Summit, the latest in a series of high-profile international events on artificial intelligence. Previous ones have brought together heads of state, senior policy-makers and CEOs of tech companies to discuss how to tackle the risks of advanced AI technologies. But there is one group that has so far been entirely missing from these processes, and it happens to be the one that will be most affected by advances in AI: children.

Children are consistently the most underrepresented group in decision-making processes relating to AI’s design, development and deployment,…

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