Dana Suskind, founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health and a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, traces her work from pediatric cochlear implant surgery to brain development research to the rise of generative AI. Her book Human Raised grew from a central observation in her clinic: two children with identical implants and loving parents could have opposite outcomes, and the difference was always the language environment they went home to. That finding led to decades of research into how talk, touch, joint attention, and the productive friction of human relationships literally wire a child’s developing brain. Now, with AI chatbots and talking toys flooding the market, she argues those same developmental processes are at risk in ways that screens and apps never quite were.
The conversation covers the neuroscience of neural synchrony, why AI interaction cannot replicate what happens between parent and child at the brain level, and the concept of AI as ultra-processed food for human connection. Suskind presents her H.O.P.E. framework as a guide for parents navigating technology with young children, with each principle grounded in developmental science: human connection as a biological necessity, owning imperfection as a feature not a failure, protecting the early years when 90 percent of the brain is built, and enhancing rather than replacing human presence. The discussion also takes on regulation, the New York City school district’s generative AI ban, the equity risk of a chatbot-free childhood becoming a status symbol, and what parents can do in practical terms right now.
Lecturer bio:
Dana Suskind, MD, is Founder and Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health and a Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. She is a pediatric surgeon and researcher whose work focuses on early brain development, caregiver-child connection and the role of technology, including artificial intelligence, in supporting young children’s development. She is the author of Thirty Million Words, Parent Nation and Human Raised.
