Soul Zhang Lu on Safeguarding Adolescents in the Era of Emotional and Generative AI
Love it or hate it, but nobody can deny that AI is one of the most consequential technological innovations of the century.
While older generations are still struggling with both the implications and the power of artificial intelligence, youngsters have embraced it wholeheartedly.
And this made the CEO of Soul Zhang Lu, involve her team in a seminar meant to discuss how to promote AI literacy and encourage appropriate use of this technology among adolescents.
The fact is that AI has permeated most aspects of the lives of these youngsters. From homework assistance to emotional companionship and from content creation to product purchases, AI is being used for just about everything.
The tools embedded in Soul Zhang Lu’s platform and others like it are playing a central role in how young people learn, express themselves, and seek connection.
So, societies are well past the point where the pressing question was whether youngsters would take to AI. Instead, now, governments, academic institutions, teachers, and parents are faced with a different conundrum how to get youngsters to:
- Harness the full power and benefits of this cutting-edge technology
- Use it without inevitably becoming over-reliant on it
- Tap into its potential without surrendering critical thinking, emotional resilience, or autonomy.
The “Empowerment and Safeguarding: Seminar on Adolescent AI Usage and Literacy Enhancement” brought together Soul Zhang Lu’s research team as well as members of the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University and the School of Information and Communication Engineering at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
Discussions held at this seminar, which was organized by China Youth Daily, Soul Zhang Lu’s researchers, and other organizations, centered on what can be done to encourage balanced use of AI among adolescents and highlighted areas where risks remain.
Seminar participants revealed that adolescents are not passive recipients of AI technology. In fact, researchers stated that multiple academic surveys have shown youngsters are among AI’s most active users.
For instance, researchers at Beijing Normal University found that students now use AI tools more frequently and across a broader range of tasks than many of their teachers.
This is understandable given the fascination that youngsters have for technologies that offer speed, personalization, and low barriers to entry.
While learning assistance dominates usage, particularly for homework completion, information retrieval, AI’s appeal also extends into emotional and expressive domains.
However, when AI becomes the default problem-solver, the line between assistance and substitution begins to blur, leading to a very real risk of developing reliance.
Also, the use of AI beyond utilitarian functions points to broad social realities such as academic pressure, fragmented offline relationships, and digital-first communication habits. Data from Soul Zhang Lu’s platform highlights three dominant AI usage scenarios among younger users:
- Knowledge-seeking and decision support
- Creative expression
- Emotional interaction
Surprisingly, the third category, which was once peripheral, now plays an integral role in user engagement. Yes, AI interaction fills a gap by offering comfort and creative stimulation when human input isn’t available. But this introduces psychological complexities.
As for the other usage scenarios, they come across as beneficial at first. But, digging deeper reveals that they also carry inherent risk.
For instance, teachers and researchers have begun to document subtle but significant side effects associated with unchecked AI use.
These include declining independent thinking skills, reduced reading stamina, and weakened information discernment.
However, AI itself cannot be blamed for this. How the technology is framed is the real issue.
For example, when AI is used as an answer-generator instead of a thinking partner, students bypass the cognitive struggle essential to learning. Over time, this erodes problem-solving confidence and intellectual curiosity.
Fortunately, the solution to this is fairly straightforward. Emphasizing rational AI use that prioritizes process over output can circumvent this issue.
In other words, adults, teachers, and parents have to encourage adolescents to think first, then consult AI as a supplement.
The most important observation made by the experts was that promoting the correct use of AI is a shared responsibility, and it needs to be treated as such by all stakeholders, including the government.
As far as the role of tech companies is concerned, Soul has shown that it is possible to embed safeguards directly into product architecture through the right design choices.
Just as important is transparency that allows adolescents to understand how recommendations are generated and where algorithmic limitations lie when they are interacting with AI.
In conclusion, Soul Zhang Lu’s team and the other experts agreed that adolescents are capable of rational engagement with intelligent systems, but only when support is offered by thoughtful design, informed adults, and inclusive policies.
