Young Children’s Anthropomorphism of an AI-Powered Conversational Agent: Brain Activation and the Role of Parent Co-Presence

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered conversational agents are entering young children’s learning and play, yet little is known about how children construe these agents during interaction. We examined anthropomorphism toward an AI-powered conversational agent and asked how children’s attributions related to behavioral and neural engagement. Children aged 5–6 (N = 23) completed three sessions: storytelling with an AI alone, with a parent alone, and with the AI and parent together, while prefrontal brain activity was recorded. Children anthropomorphized parents more than the AI overall but still attributed strong perceptive and epistemic abilities to the AI. Higher perceptive attributions were associated with greater right dorsomedial prefrontal activation during AI-only interaction, lower activation when a parent was present, and more scared mood. Findings highlight how children’s AI construals and parent co-presence shape child-AI interaction and point to design considerations for age-appropriate AI-powered conversational agent systems for young children.