AI is like ultra-processed food for developing brains. T he human brain has evolved to learn from specific instructors. When a child hears a gentle spoken word or a soothing lullaby from another person, when their cry is responded to, their brain lights up. Nurturing interactions, or what child-development experts call "serve and return" exchanges, help shape and strengthen the 1 million new neural connections taking place in a child's brain every single second. Every time a child cries or serves up a bid for attention and receives a caregiver's response, that back-and-forth helps build the circuits underlying their communication, learning, and emotional well-being.

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