The impact of artificial intelligence on natural human abilities: A critical review with recommendations for children, youth, and communities

Abstract

The rapid, largely unregulated integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday life raises pressing questions about long-term effects on distinctively human cognitive, social, emotional, and creative capacities. This narrative review critically examines peer-reviewed research, theoretical scholarship, and interdisciplinary commentary published between 2000 and 2025, with emphasis on studies from 2018 onwards. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory as an organising framework, the review analyses how AI operates across microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem levels to reshape the conditions under which human abilities develop. Evidence reviewed suggests that habitual, unreflective AI use is associated with reduced engagement in critical reasoning, memory consolidation, empathetic attunement, creative effort, and authentic communication. At the same time, AI, when used intentionally and equitably, can meaningfully augment human capacity and support vulnerable populations. The most significant risks fall disproportionately on children and youth, whose neurological and social development remains formative, and on marginalised communities whose structural disadvantages are likely to be amplified by poorly governed AI systems. The article concludes with differentiated, evidence-grounded recommendations for families, educational institutions, social work practitioners, community organisations, and policymakers, and calls for a reconceptualization of digital literacy as a civic and developmental necessity.