Electrical grids planned on outdated climate data face physical and fiscal risk: UN University scientists propose domain-informed AI as the fix

While AI can improve grid resilience, it requires strict guardrails to limit energy use, ensure transparency, and prevent training bias

United Nations University

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Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada – 04 September 2026 — Artificial intelligence has become a major new pressure on the electricity grid at the same time as it is emerging as one of the most promising tools for making that grid resilient, according to a new publication by the United Nations University scientists. The policy question, the authors argue, is no longer whether to deploy AI for grid resilience, but under what guardrails.

The Policy Brief, “Employing Domain-Informed AI for Energy Planning and Decarbonization under Uncertainty”, published by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), warns that governments are approving electricity infrastructure with 15-20 year lifespans on the basis of historical weather records that are unlikely to hold in the coming decades. Written for national regulators and climate-finance institutions, the publication is a step forward to set out safeguards supporting the acceleration of decarbonisation targets through 2030.

At the centre of the energy transition, the Policy Brief describes a feedback loop. Renewable energy is a critical instrument of climate change mitigation, yet it is more susceptible to adverse climate conditions than fossil fuel-based generation, so the technologies deployed to slow climate change become less predictable as it advances. Warming is simultaneously pushing demand upwards through more air conditioning and more groundwater pumping in drier conditions. The renewable sector is projected to nearly triple in size by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency’s Renewables 2024, but that expansion is being planned against shifting rather than stable weather.

Demand is rising faster than planners assumed. The authors warn that the growth trajectory of power-intensive end-uses, including data centres and electric vehicles, already exceeds anticipated capacity expansion needs. Unregulated AI data centres consume vast amounts of electricity and directly strain the grids they are built on.

“We are asking the grid to absorb more renewable energy and more demand at the same time, and we are making those decisions with data that describes a climate we no longer live in,” said Dr Renee Obringer, Research Fellow of Urban and Interdependent Infrastructure Systems at UNU-INWEH and lead author of the publication. “The uncomfortable part is that AI sits on both sides of the ledger. It is one of the reasons demand is climbing, and it is also the fastest route we have to planning for what is coming.”

The Policy Brief identifies the failure of long-term capital planning to account for forward-looking climate risk as a primary barrier to grid resilience, and frames it as a fiscal exposure rather than a technical one. Deploying capital on stationary historical data, for assets that will run 15 to 20 years, accumulates stranded assets as physical climate risks materialise. For climate-finance institutions, that makes forward-looking risk assessment a condition of sound capital allocation. Research on climate impacts has advanced, the brief concludes, but it is not consistently reaching the regulatory agencies responsible for capacity planning, which still rely on historical weather data to anticipate demand spikes.

Domain-informed AI, the publication argues, is one of many necessary solutions rather than a remedy on its own. These algorithms are more transparent about how they are trained and are tailored to a specific application area such as energy systems, which sets them apart from large language models and general-purpose deep learning. Built for the problem, they often outperform general-purpose alternatives, and because their reasoning is legible, planners can fold them into existing processes.

Their value lies in what current tools cannot do. The general circulation models underpinning state-of-the-art climate impact assessment are hard to integrate, hard to downscale to the spatial scales infrastructure decisions turn on, and slow to yield the variables energy systems modellers need. Domain-informed AI models, by contrast, already deliver highly accurate short and long-term renewable forecasts, and AI climate emulators are progressing rapidly in accuracy.

The authors call on regulators to institutionalise adaptive governance frameworks, to bring energy systems modellers together with climate scientists in integrated modelling across water, transport and information and communications technology networks, and to mandate transparent, domain-informed AI models as an enforceable standard for capacity planning approval. To ensure safety and public trust, regulators should classify opaque deep learning systems as severe operational hazards and enforce strict guardrails against algorithmic training bias, while policymakers should require that AI data centres operate primarily on verifiable renewable energy.

“AI is being offered to governments as an answer to the energy transition while quietly becoming one of its largest new burdens, and both of those things are true at once,” said Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of UNU-INWEH and a co-author of the Brief. “Rejecting these tools would slow decarbonisation. Adopting them without transparency rules or limits on their own energy use would simply exchange one risk for another. The task is not to choose between the two, but to set the conditions under which AI is allowed near critical infrastructure.”

Key Messages at a Glance

• Renewable energy is central to climate change mitigation but is more susceptible to adverse climate conditions than fossil fuel-based generation, creating a feedback loop in which mitigation becomes less reliable as the climate changes.
• Growth in power-intensive end-uses such as data centres and electric vehicles already exceeds anticipated capacity expansion needs.
• Long-term grid planning relies on historical weather and climate trends that are unlikely to remain stable in the coming decades.
• Capital deployed on stationary historical data, for infrastructure with 15-20 year lifespans, accumulates stranded assets as climate risks materialise.
• Domain-informed AI can complement existing tools with fast, reliable estimates of future extreme events and improved modelling for generation and transmission planning.
• Unregulated AI data centres strain the grid directly; policymakers should mandate that this infrastructure runs primarily on verifiable renewable energy.

Read the Publication

Obringer R., Matin M., Madani K. (2026). Employing Domain-Informed AI for Energy Planning and Decarbonization under Uncertainty. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. doi: 10.53328/INR26RRO001.  

Available for Interview

Interview requests should be submitted to media.inweh@unu.edu  

Media Contacts

Marjan Asadullah, Communications Assistant, UNU-INWEH, marjan.asadullah@unu.edu  

About UNU-INWEH

Marking its 30th anniversary of operation in 2026, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) is one of 13 institutions that make up the United Nations University (UNU), the academic arm of the UN. Known as ‘The UN’s Think Tank on Water’, UNU-INWEH addresses critical water, environmental, and health challenges around the world. Through research, training, capacity development, and knowledge dissemination, the institute contributes to solving pressing global sustainability and human security issues of concern to the UN and its Member States.

Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, UNU-INWEH has been hosted and supported by the Government of Canada since 1996. With a global mandate and extensive partnerships across UN entities, international organizations, and governments, UNU-INWEH operates through its UNU Hubs in Calgary, Hamburg, New York, Lund, and Pretoria, and an international network of affiliates.

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DOI

10.53328/INR26RRO001 

Article Title

Employing Domain-Informed AI for Energy Planning and Decarbonization under Uncertainty

Article Publication Date

4-Sep-2026

 

JMIR news: Looking towards the future of health tech

JMIR Publications

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(Toronto, Sept 4, 2026) — JMIR Publications released three feature News and Perspectives articles this week, covering an emerging application of drone delivery, the implications of AI tools used in early education, the nascent field of cancer neurotech, and the future of consumer wearable devices.

Drone Initiatives for Faster (and Cheaper) Transplant Organ Delivery

JMIR Correspondent Michelle Falci reports on recent efforts to deliver organs between medical facilities in "How Drones Can Connect Organ Donors With Recipients Faster". According to kidney/pancreas transplant surgeon Dr. Mekhola Hoff of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, organ delivery is complicated by the distance between Edinburgh and other United Kingdom cities, often requiring transplant teams to “charter an expensive overnight flight and then navigate rush-hour traffic in the morning in order to connect a donor organ with a recipient”, writes Falci, prompting Dr. Hoff’s “own mission to incorporate drones into transplant logistics in the United Kingdom”. Falci also speaks with Dr. Shaf Keshavjee on his initiative to connect Toronto Pearson International Airport with Toronto General Hospital with a drone corridor—which in 2021 successfully transported lungs for transplant—cutting down the last leg of the journey and minimizing the associated risks.  

AI In the Classroom

In "Reckoning With AI in Primary and Secondary School Education: Impacts on Learning and Development Remain to Be Seen", JMIR Correspondent Simon Spichak speaks with education researchers and one teacher on the rapid integration of AI tools in K-8 education. The implications of how these tools may affect childhood and adolescent development, writes Spichak, is so far poorly understood, though experts worry that their design—which measures success through engagement and allows users to offload cognitive tasks—is not appropriate for students, posing “risks to children’s cognitive development, creativity, mastery of school subjects, and social and emotional development.” One source, grade 6-8 teacher Sara Baldassar, emphasizes the importance of teaching AI literacy to children and training educators on how to do so effectively; another, researcher Mary Burns, says that moving too quickly to adopt AI into education may come at the cost of thoughtful integration.

Early Developments in Cancer Neuroscience Tech

Spichak reports on early cancer neurotechnology research and development in his second article this week: "Can Neurotech Help Tame Brain Tumors?" Following findings of electrical integration of brain tumours in neural circuits—meaning that tumour growth can be driven by neurological activity—”researchers and companies are developing neurotechnology to map and target hard-to-treat brain tumors,” writes Spichak. These early developments include Dr. Nuri Ince’s neural interface research, which could one day help surgeons map the areas of tissue around brain tumors with greater precision; the possibility that SetPoint Medical’s vagus nerve stimulator device for cytokine reduction could also halt glioblastoma progression; and Coherence Neuro’s in-progress brain implant to treat tumours via electrical stimulation and record their associated brain activity, potentially opening up the possibility of monitoring and predicting cancer initiation.

What’s Next for Wearables

The consumer wearables industry may have measured itself into a corner, according to MedTech expert and strategist Blythe Karow in "From Measurement to Meaning: The Next Decade of the Quantified Self". As wearable devices become increasingly sophisticated, collecting more kinds of physiological information and approaching medical-grade reliability, they also create what Karow calls an interpretation gap: an overabundance of data that consumers can’t easily translate into meaningful knowledge or action. “The data is both too much and no longer enough,” she writes. “It’s exhausting. We don’t only want data anymore, we want someone or something to help us crunch that data and figure out what it all means and what to do about it.” What may need to come next, according to Karow, is for wearable platforms to begin interpreting the data in earnest, making “good on the health claims increasingly attached to their products”—signalling a shift in how consumer wearables could integrate into health care systems.

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About JMIR Publications News and Perspectives

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research. The News and Perspectives section is the newest addition to its portfolio, established to bring the rigor and integrity of academic publishing to scientific journalism. The section features well-researched, expert-driven content from the Scientific News Editor, Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD, and a network of specialist JMIR Publications Correspondents to keep the digital health community informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.

About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research and a champion of open science. With a focus on author advocacy and research amplification, JMIR Publications partners with researchers to advance their careers and maximize the impact of their work. As a technology organization with publishing at its core, we provide innovative tools and resources that go beyond traditional publishing, supporting researchers at every step of the dissemination process. Our portfolio features a range of peer-reviewed journals, including the renowned Journal of Medical Internet Research. 

To find out more about JMIR Publications, visit jmirpublications.com or connect with them on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Dennis O’Brien, Vice President, Communications & Partnerships

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The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.

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Journal

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Method of Research

News article

Subject of Research

People

 

Health warnings could reduce young people’s social media use, Stanford Medicine study finds

Warning labels for social media

Stanford Medicine

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Pop-up messages that warn of the harms of social media — such as mental health consequences — have potential to reduce young people’s social media use, a new Stanford Medicine study has found. The online experiment of about 1,000 teens and young adults found that warnings also boosted people’s knowledge of the risks of social media use.

The research, which will publish online Sept. 4 in JAMA Health Forum, was inspired by a 2024 call from then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, to add health warning labels to social media, in the same way that tobacco, alcohol and other risky products carry warnings. Four U.S. states have since passed legislation mandating such warnings; California’s law will go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Warning labels are one of many tactics that could help people use social media in a healthier way, said lead study author Anna Grummon, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics. But they haven’t been rigorously investigated.

“We haven’t known what warnings for social media should say, or if they’re promising for changing behavior,” Grummon said. “Sometimes, subtle changes to warnings really matter.”

The study found that, of 15 messages tested, those on overall mental health harms and warnings specific to depression and anxiety resonated most with young people.

“Teens and young adults consistently reported that they felt the warning messages we tested would reduce their social media use compared with a control message,” said senior study author Thomas Robinson, MD, the Irving Schulman, MD, Professor in Child Health.

“Our data suggests these warnings could work, so it’s worth spending time to get the language just right,” Grummon added.

Negative effects of social media

Nearly all U.S. teens and young adults use some form of social media. Previous research has linked excessive social media use to several negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, worsened body image and sleep disruption.

Adding warnings to social media has broad support, Grummon said, noting that after the surgeon general’s call in 2024, a bipartisan coalition of 42 state attorneys general petitioned Congress to enact warnings at a federal level. In addition to the states that have passed warning laws (California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York), lawmakers in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania have proposed legislation. California’s law has specific warning language built into the legislation; other states have not specified the warnings’ wording.

The Stanford Medicine researchers tested 14 warnings and a control message, using questionnaires administered to 1,012 young people. About half were teenagers who were 13 to 17 years old, and half were young adults, 18 to 29 years old. As part of the questionnaire, they provided information about their demographics and which social media platforms they used.

The researchers developed warning messages on six health topics: social media addiction, negative body image, sleep disruption, depression, anxiety, overall mental health harms and the fact that social media has not been proven safe for young people. They devised two warnings on each topic. They also tested California’s warning.

For instance, one of the messages about sleep said, “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Using social media causes sleep problems. This is bad for your health.” Another message tested said, “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Social media is associated with significant mental health harms for children and young adults.”

Because some social media companies have suggested they could provide their own warnings, the researchers also tested a message suggesting a screen time break which was similar to one used on TikTok. Finally, the control message discussed seatbelt safety, a health topic that is relevant to young people but unrelated to social media use.

Participants saw the messages in random order, formatted as though they were appearing on an Instagram page. They rated each message in response to two questions: “How much does this message discourage you from wanting to use social media?” and “How much does this message increase your awareness of the harms of using social media?”

Mental health harm resonates

Participants rated all the warning messages as more effective than the control message. They also rated all warnings that mentioned health effects, except the addiction warning, as more effective than the message suggesting a screen time break.

The messages perceived as most effective were those about overall mental health harms, depression and anxiety. Although the data does not show why those messages performed best, “if I were to speculate, I would say that these are harms that resonate with people,” Grummon said. “People may think, ‘That’s right, I can see that happening to my friends or to me,’ and these are outcomes people care about.”

Teens and young adults responded similarly to the warnings, the study found. The researchers had suspected the age groups might differ.

“If you’re a few years older, it makes a big difference in your experience with digital media since the landscape is changing so quickly,” Robinson said. “But our teen and young adult participants consistently said they felt these messages would reduce their social media use.”

The California warning performed fairly well — its perceived effectiveness was on par with other health warnings, even though it is longer and more complex. It says, “The Surgeon General has warned that while social media may have benefits for some young users, social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users.”

“We talked to the people who created the bill, and they told us the rationale behind it,” Robinson said. “It’s not the message we would have designed, but we think we understand why it performed well, and it was meant to stand up to legal scrutiny. All these bills are in litigation, being challenged by the social media industry.”

The next step is to conduct more extensive tests to see if the warnings in fact reduce social media use.

“With substances like tobacco and alcohol, we find, on average, that well-designed warning labels change behavior,” Grummon said. “But social media is a totally different product from cigarettes or alcohol or sugary drinks, where you just put the warning on the product and it lives there. Social media laws are written so that these warnings are basically pop-ups. We need to find out more about how that changes behavior.”

Researchers at the University of North Carolina and the University of California, Davis, also contributed to the study. The study was funded by the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute and the Department of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

 

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About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu.

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Journal

JAMA Health Forum

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Designing social media health warnings or teens and young adults: An online randomized experiment

Article Publication Date

4-Sep-2026

School-based prevention programs for gaming disorder and problematic online habits

In a four-year, statewide study, researchers in Heidelberg tested the effectiveness of a behavioral therapy approach and media education

Heidelberg University

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School-based prevention programs are designed to help protect adolescents from gaming disorder and problematic online habits. But how effective are these interventions when it comes to promoting responsible use of video games and the Internet? A research team led by Prof. Dr. Katajun Lindenberg of the Institute of Psychology at Heidelberg University investigated this question as part of a statewide study in which a total of approximately 1,800 adolescents from 44 secondary schools in Baden-Württemberg participated. The results show that, in the long run, a four-week behavioral therapy-based program achieved greater effects among participants at high risk of addiction than a media education program did.

“Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about effective measures to protect the mental health of young people in the digital age, the question of effective interventions is highly relevant,” emphasizes Katajun Lindenberg, who is Professor of Clinical Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence at Heidelberg University and directs the Psychotherapeutic University Outpatient Clinic for Children and Adolescents. In addition to much-discussed regulatory measures such as age restrictions, there are parallel calls for measures designed to empower young people to use video games and the Internet responsibly. These include prevention programs based on behavioral therapy or media education approaches. “Our research provides important empirical insights into which programs and content are particularly effective and which target groups benefit the most.” To this end, the scientists compared the behavioral therapy intervention PROTECTtraining and the media education program PROTECTinfo – two interventions developed for the school setting that are identical in terms of duration and implementation effort but differ in content.

Gaming disorder and other problematic online habits – such as excessive use of social media – can lead to reduced mental and physical health among adolescents as well as serious impairments in important areas of life such as school, family, friendships, and leisure time. To determine how effective school-based interventions are in preventing online addictive behavior, the researchers conducted a four-year randomized study involving adolescents aged 11 to 18. As part of this, 1,793 students participated in a four-week intervention consisting of a total of four 90-minute sessions. Half of the adolescents completed the behavioral therapy program PROTECTtraining that, among other things, explained the vicious cycle of addiction and provided training in behavior change and emotion regulation. A second control group participated in the media education program PROTECTinfo covering topics such as media literacy, gaming, cyberbullying, and legal aspects.

As part of the prevention study, the research team assessed the participants’ online addiction behaviors and mental well-being at the beginning and end of the programs as well as after four and twelve months. The researchers conducted a separate analysis for adolescents who had been identified as having a comparatively high risk of addiction at the start of the study. The final survey, conducted one year after the programs began, revealed that among adolescents without a risk of addictive behavior – the majority of study participants – there was hardly any measurable effect on their symptoms. In contrast, for adolescents at high risk of addiction, both interventions proved effective; however, the behavioral therapy intervention was significantly more effective.

“In a direct comparison, the behavioral therapy program is 50 percent more effective against gaming disorder and other problematic online behaviors than the media education program,” stresses Prof. Lindenberg. According to the Heidelberg researcher, these results also underscore that targeted measures tailored to at-risk groups in the school setting achieve significantly better results and are more resource-efficient than prevention programs implemented on a broad scale.

The then Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the former Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration funded the research. The results appear in the journal “JAMA Network Open”.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.31942 

Article Title

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Media Literacy for Prevention of Gaming Disorder and Unspecified Internet Use Disorder

Article Publication Date

4-Sep-2026

Do games make children more attentive or more distractible?

A study involving 48 typically developing children (mean age 5.4 years) investigates whether a brief digital or non-digital play session temporarily alters the balance between attentional processes and cognitive control

BIAL Foundation

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A study of preschool children found that brief digital or traditional gameplay improved performance on tasks requiring quick responses, but reduced performance on tasks demanding greater concentration and self-control.

Digital technologies are now part of the daily lives of many children, and video games are among the most engaging forms of play during the preschool years. However, despite their widespread use, the debate regarding their cognitive consequences remains open. Numerous studies have examined the long-term effects of video games on cognitive development, yet little is known about the immediate psychological effects of brief play sessions in early childhood.

Studies involving school-aged children, adolescents and young adults have generally reported positive or neutral effects of video gaming, with no consistent evidence of negative impacts. However, in preschool-aged children, because the brain mechanisms responsible for attention, self-control and the management of distractions are still developing, the effects of video games may be more pronounced than at later stages of development.

With support from the Bial Foundation, Andrea Facoetti, Sara Bertoni, Sandro Franceschini and Giovanna Puccio (University of Padua, Italy) led a study involving 48 typically developing children with a mean age of 5.4 years to investigate whether a brief play session - digital or non-digital - temporarily alters the balance between attentional processes and cognitive control.

In the article “Brief digital and traditional gameplay transiently reallocate attentional resources in preschool children”, published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports, the authors explain that each participant was assessed under three different conditions: a control condition with no play activity, a 30-minute session of an age-appropriate action video game (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), and a 30-minute session involving a traditional construction-based game (Tangram). Following each condition, the children completed tests assessing attention, speech-sound processing, visual perception and motor coordination.

The findings showed that both video games and traditional games produced similar immediate effects. After the play sessions, children performed better on tasks requiring the rapid detection of relevant stimuli. In contrast, the same pattern was not observed when tasks demanded greater cognitive control. When children had to ignore visual distractions, their performance declined following the play sessions. Moreover, these effects became more pronounced as task complexity increased.

The study suggests that brief and emotionally engaging play experiences - whether digital or traditional - may temporarily enhance more automatic attentional processes at the expense of control and regulatory abilities that require greater cognitive effort in preschool children. The determining factor appears to be the level of psychological engagement and attentional activation generated by the activity, rather than the type of game itself.

From an educational perspective, the findings suggest that the period immediately following an intense play activity may be less suitable for tasks requiring sustained concentration, self-control or resistance to distractions. Conversely, it may represent an opportunity for activities that benefit from rapid responses, active exploration of the environment or efficient detection of relevant information.

“Understanding this short-term multisensory and sensorimotor modulation is essential for guiding the integration of digital play into early childhood learning environments,” emphasise the authors.

Learn more about the project “153/24 - Psychophysiological activation and learning (to Learn): Evidence from action-like video games to mindfulness” here.

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Journal

Computers in Human Behavior Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101183 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Brief digital and traditional gameplay transiently reallocate attentional resources in preschool children

 

With education technology, engagement is not the same as learning

APA report calls for greater scrutiny of EdTech claims, extra caution when students use generative AI

American Psychological Association

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WASHINGTON — A new report from the American Psychological Association warns that student engagement with educational technology is not the same as learning — and that generative AI tools pose particular risks by improving students' immediate performance without building their underlying knowledge or skills. 

The APA Expert Report on Children’s and Adolescents’ Learning with Educational Technology argues that students’ ability to apply new knowledge outside of an app or screen is a much stronger indication of learning than how much time a child spends on a screen, and that parents and educators working with children and young people ages 5 to 18 should be wary of marketing claims that run ahead of scientific evidence.

The report stresses that even if a student is paying close attention to an app, such as by clicking frequently, responding to animations or interacting with rewards, that engagement does not necessarily mean that the student is learning.

“Educational technology has the potential to profoundly advance students’ learning and abilities, but parents, teachers and school districts need tools that are safe, supported by evidence and can genuinely help students learn,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD. “These recommendations, based in psychological research, can help determine whether EdTech tools actually produce the learning outcomes they promise.”

Compiled by a multidisciplinary panel of cognitive and educational psychologists, learning scientists and EdTech experts, the report synthesizes evidence across a wide range of technologies, including educational apps, games, intelligent tutoring systems, generative AI tools and digital learning platforms. It offers 10 evidence-based recommendations to help families, educators, policymakers and developers ensure that technology promotes meaningful learning.

Drawing on research from psychological science, the report recommends that schools, families and developers prioritize tools that build durable knowledge and skills that students can carry into other contexts, instead of evaluating apps based on flashy features. Additional recommendations include making adult involvement a significant part of EdTech implementation and investing in research that can keep pace with rapid technological change.

Educators should exercise particular caution when introducing generative AI tools into learning environments, said Nicole Barnes, PhD, APA’s executive lead psychologist for education.

“AI can help a student produce a better essay, but the improved final product does not necessarily mean the student has become a better writer,” Barnes said. “Just as we need to separate engagement from learning, we will increasingly need to separate performance from learning.”

Rather than trying to prevent children and adolescents from using AI tools altogether, the report recommends teaching students to actively evaluate AI-generated responses. Students should learn to question chatbots’ assumptions and identify gaps in chatbots’ reasoning, compare responses against other sources and consider how answers might change under different circumstances. In this sense, students should approach AI less as an answer machine and more as something they are continuously testing, challenging and learning from.

The report stresses that primary responsibility for ensuring that EdTech products are supported by evidence lies with the companies that develop them and the institutions that choose to adopt them. Developers should be prepared to demonstrate that their products improve learning, while schools and districts should expect credible, independent evidence before investing in educational technology.

APA also offers simple advice to parents: look and ask.

• Spend a minute watching the app and pay attention to what is happening on the screen — if much of the experience involves dressing a character, selecting accessories, collecting rewards or responding to flashing images, it is reasonable to question the app’s educational value.
   
• Ask a teacher, principal, early childhood leader or school board whether there is credible, independent evidence showing that the app leads to learning.

NOTE: The link to the report

 https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/children-adolescent-learning-educational-technology