Artificial intelligence is already part of family life, invited or not. From smart cribs and baby monitors to AI-powered toys, tutors, and companions designed for toddlers, innovation has raced ahead of regulation, leaving parents to make choices that will reverberate for decades without clear, evidence-based guidance. Throughout human history, we could assume that children were 100 percent “human raised.” As AI’s capabilities surge, that certainty is vanishing.

In Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity, and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI, pediatric surgeon and early brain development researcher Dana Suskind, MD (FAN ’15, ’22), sets aside the question of whether AI is good or bad to ask a more urgent one: what does human development require, and where does AI help or harm that process? Drawing on decades of research into how human connection builds the developing brain, she shows that while AI can mimic the surface of interaction, it cannot replace the messy, deeply human exchanges that build language, attachment, and social understanding.

Suskind is the founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago, and celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain and Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise.

Suskind will be in conversation with Emily Oster, Ph.D., Esposito Family Goldman Sachs University Professor of Economics at Brown University, founder and CEO of ParentData, and a New York Times best-selling author, whose books include Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and most recently, The Unexpected. She is also the co-creator and co-host of the podcast, Wellness, Actually.

This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.