Empathy and Theory of Mind are not optional.

AI cannot and does not offer genuine emotional presence.

Skills, knowledge, and learning mature gradually, and require constant work.

Recently, there has been conversation in the media to the effect that artificial intelligence (AI) should be used to communicate and engage with children. This advice needs to be considered in light of what the research indicates is taking place. AI cannot and does not offer genuine emotional presence, nor can it model or convey the subtle, unpredictable dynamics of human interactions, nor family nuances or cultural or social complexities (Li & Lee, 2025).

The message is unambiguous: Relying on AI as a substitute for parental or other human engagement risks further displacing the profound experiences children especially need to hear and engage in face-to-face conversations, and years of physical play—at the very minimum—to cultivate healthy, holistic cognitive, emotional, psychological, personal, and social development, including empathy and Theory of Mind.

For empathy and Theory of Mind to develop, constant face-to-face human communication from birth, along with its associated social scaffolding and developmental processes, must unrelentingly take place to bring about the required holistic—brain, mind, and body—healthy, ethical, and complex universal human condition (Li & Lee, 2025).

Skills, knowledge, cognitive and emotional intelligence, empathy, and Theory of Mind are foundational, holistic capacities that begin at birth. When a baby first looks into their mother’s face and eyes and hears their mother’s voice, this marks the start of the all-important forever communication process that begins the journey toward understanding oneself, others, and the external world (Kurian, 2025).

These neurological and learning systems will only mature through ongoing, continuous face-to-face communication, involving constant talking, listening, and observing. The development of empathy and Theory of Mind requires repeated, embodied, i.e., personal reciprocal social experiences that involve facial expressions, tone of voice, gesture, and shared attention; all of which are part of the universal human condition.

As the research indicates, when these experiences are reduced or replaced by digital interaction, the developmental trajectory can change and fail to develop. Critically, prolonged screen‑mediated interaction erodes empathy and Theory of Mind by stripping away the embodied cues that scaffold neurological, psychological, intellectual, emotional and behavioral development.

The evidence is unambiguous: empathy and Theory of Mind are not optional; they are........

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