Originally featured at UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week and reprised by popular demand, this GSoLEN webinar examines how AI is transforming human learning, culture, and cognition, especially for children and youth.

Experts from psychology, neuroscience, AI education ("AIED unplugged"), and child development discuss:
- How AI has become part of children’s “cultural ecology of learning” and why our brains and school systems are struggling to keep up with rapid technological change.
- The concept of pedagogically tamed AI: tools that are designed with the science of learning, cultural variability, and local values at the center, rather than as one-size-fits-all global solutions.
- Why child development (sensorimotor, social‑emotional, cognitive) and sensitive periods must guide the design of AI products for children, including risks related to sleep, movement, social media, and parasocial “AI companions.”
- Evidence that AI‑driven personalization can significantly improve learning outcomes, including in low‑ and middle‑income countries, and why intelligent tutoring systems must also attend to emotions, motivation, and mental health.
- Neuroscience‑informed approaches to personalization that protect cognitive effort and attentional “flow zones,” reducing distraction without eliminating productive struggle and problem‑solving.

Speakers
​- Cristine Legare, PhD – Professor of Psychology, Director of Evolution, Variation, and Ontogeny of Learning Lab, UT Austin (USA)
- Olga Muss Laurenty – AI & Child Development Researcher, everyone.AI (USA)
- Ig Ibert Bittencourt, PhD – UNESCO Chairholder on AIED Unplugged, Founder of IA.Edu Institute (Brazil)
- Milad Ekramnia, PhD – CEO, EdCortex (France)

Moderator
- Kelly Shiohira – Director, Global Science of Learning Education Network (GSoLEN)