‘Advance of AI creating a governance responsibility’

Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword, and the governance objective should be to sharpen the edge of opportunity while blunting the edge of risk, Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Centre, said on Monday (February 16, 2026).

“Digital penetration has increased, and children are increasingly exposed to AI-driven platforms. We still do not fully know the long-term effects of growing up with AI companions and synthetic media,” he said at a session at the ongoing AI Impact Summit.

“The need to embed child-specific safeguards and guardrails into the governance framework is not a choice, but it is a must,” Mr. Sood said, underlining that the advance of AI has created a governance responsibility.

“Future generation should not be a victim of today’s technology,” he said.

Increased presence of AI in children’s daily lives

He also noted that more evidence is needed to understand how these tools impact a child’s development, mental health and education over time.

At the session on ‘AI and Children: Turning Principles into Practice for Safe, Inclusive, and Empowering AI’, Mr. Sood mentioned that AI is more present in children’s daily lives through learning tools, content platforms and different models.

This creates a governance responsibility to ensure that children can benefit from AI’s potential for learning and inclusion while being protected from harms that scale up quickly in the digital environment, Mr. Sood said.

“AI is a double-edged sword. The governance objective should be to sharpen the edge of opportunity while blunting the edge of risk,” he said, adding that on the positive side, AI can support more personalised pedagogy by helping children learn at their own pace and also provide them with timely feedback beyond classroom hours.

At the same time, Sood also flagged the need to avoid over-reliance on AI tools since they can weaken critical thinking, independent problem solving and learning.