Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like Amazon’s AI voice assistant Alexa, Snapchat’s My AI, and Microsoft’s Bing have frequently shown signs of an “empathy gap” that puts young users at risk of distress or harm, according to a study on Thursday that proposes the urgent need for “child-safe AI”.

The research from the University of Cambridge calls on developers and policymakers to prioritise approaches to AI design that take greater account of children’s needs.