Next month, world leaders will gather in Paris for the , 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, as well as the regulatory discussions and policy-making around how it should be used. That must change.
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That’s why, on 4 February, ahead of the Paris meeting, my team at the Alan Turing Institute in London has partnered with Queen Mary University of London to convene the . Supported by the LEGO Group and charitable organisation Elevate Great, it will bring together children aged 8 to 18 from across the UK to share their views on what should be on the agenda in Paris. It’s a really exciting event, but also one that is long overdue.
Part of the problem is the way children are viewed in these spaces. When the importance of bringing children into these conversations is raised, it is often with reference to the familiar idea that “children are the future”. That’s something I fundamentally disagree with.
If we value children because we view them as the future, we are seeing their worth only in terms of their potential, or what they might contribute in years to come. We focus on educating them so they are equipped to work with AI in the future or solve the problems that previous generations hand down, rather than facilitating their involvement in processes to address those problems today.
Children aren’t the future. Children are the here and now.
In relation to AI, children of all ages already experience its effects on a daily basis. Babies and infants play with smart toys, very young children interact with smart devices, AI on social media filters the information teenagers access. In education, AI is used to personalise material or tailor learning pathways.
There are huge opportunities to use AI in positive ways, creating new, playful, fun experiences, or to support children in education through assistive technologies, for example. But there are also significant risks and as yet unknown impacts.
Getting this right means putting children at the heart of decision-making. Very often, problems occur because systems haven’t been designed with children’s needs and interests in mind, or because assumptions are made based on adults’ experiences and perceptions.
No adult today has firsthand experience of being a child in a world with generative AI: children really are the only experts in this. To fully understand their experiences with these technologies, or what impacts they might be having, we absolutely must involve children themselves.
That’s why the Children’s AI Summit is so important. At the event, children will share their experience of AI and what matters to them when thinking about its future, including laying out what they want to see on the agenda in Paris. From the summit, we will produce a children’s manifesto for the future of AI, and aim to share their messages with world leaders at the Paris AI Action Summit.
For too long, children’s experiences, children’s voices and children themselves have been overlooked in discussions around AI. I hope our summit is the beginning of many more activities that put children at the centre – valuing them not as future adults, but as the here and now.
Mhairi Aitken is senior ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London
