FEATURE

How PSM are using AI in kids content

24 June 2026
With public media researching and experimenting with AI tools to enhance their programmes, how can the technology help public media enhance their productions for children? 
PBS KIDS ELINOR WONDERS WHY Courtesy of Pipeline Studios, Credit: SHOE Ink

Disclaimer: When the abbreviation AI is being used in this article, it refers to Artificial Intelligence in general, not specifically Generative AI. The latter will be referred as Gen AI in this article.

Children’s programmes are a true oasis of creativity for any producer. They offer an opportunity to break the mould and go beyond reality. They blend worlds, universes, characters and formats, whilst also enabling important messages and values to be subtly conveyed to children. For public broadcasters of all sizes, budgets and mandates, producing children’s content that is both entertaining and educational is often an integral part of their remit. Indeed for some public media, it is their greatest asset.

New artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI (Gen AI) tools, seem to present a real opportunity to enhance these programmes, making them more interactive, more accessible or even more tailored to each child. But they also pose ethical questions of public media’s principles, such as editorial accountability, child protection and trust. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in production, the challenge is not just how to use it, but how to use it responsibly. These questions are asked throughout public media organisations, across departments, content formats, genres and audiences. But in children’s content, there is a special responsibility.

Read more: Artificial Intelligence: A protective tool for journalists? 

Unicef analysed the risks AI and Gen AI can pose to children, citing serious impacts on brain development and social behaviours when they are too reliant on AI during that formative age. They also warn against exposure to highly persuasive AI-powered disinformation or harmful and illegal content, to which children are particularly vulnerable given their cognitive capacities are still in development.

Given the current media environment, having content developed in a public interest and public service mindset is vital to provide a safe haven where children can access trustworthy and safe content.

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How PBS KIDS embraces AI

PBS KIDS has been an innovation leader in the early childhood sector and has been using AI tools in some of its programmes for many years. Together with producers, the University of California and experts in AI, children and education such as Ying Xu from Harvard University, they have developed interactive programme episodes powered by conversational AI systems. The AI is used to decode the viewer’s response to a prompt in the episode, and subsequently guides the character’s own response, breaking the fourth wall and drawing the audience in an immersive experience. Indeed, the audience member is less a viewer, and more an active participant in the programme.

In her research, Ying Xu suggested that interactive episodes can deliver stronger learning outcomes than traditional, non-interactive formats. For PBS KIDS, this is a key motivation for their use of AI. Senior Vice President and General Manager of PBS KIDS, Sara DeWitt, told PMA that “PBS KIDS’ mission is to meet kids where they are. Through all technological innovation, including the exploration of AI tools, the goals are the same – to increase users’ learning gains from media, engage parents in conversations about the media their kids watch, and equip children with the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly technology-centered world.”

“[By] putting a child’s learning at the centre of innovation (instead of just profits), we can harness the educational potential of new tools.” – Sarah DeWitt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PBS KIDS

However, PBS KIDS does not use Gen AI in any of its programmes, DeWitt said. The organisation insisted that the development of AI-aided episodes is still principally controlled by humans, with series writers responsible for creating all the responses of the pre-programmed characters.

Beyond using AI in some of their content, PBS KIDS also sometimes incorporates AI as a subject matter into their storytelling. In this way, PBS can begin building AI-literacy amongst children, demonstrating how AI can appear in their everyday lives, and how to approach different situations or use certain AI tools and what it means.

However, researching and developing these technologies and implementing them comes at a high cost. The cuts of federal funding for public media in the US has put on hold the research PBS KIDS was leading on AI, as well as their resources such as the PBS learning analytics platform and other accessibility offerings.

DeWitt stressed it is critical that “there are non-commercial explorations around new technologies too. [By] putting a child’s learning at the centre of innovation (instead of just profits), we can harness the educational potential of new tools”. According to her, non-commercial approaches to technology in children’s media “can help inform the field as we navigate a difficult, ever-changing, and potentially unsafe media environment, especially for our younger leaners”.

PBS KIDS LYLA IN THE LOOP™. Credit: 202X Mighty Picnic LLC, All rights reserved
The appearance of Gen AI in children programmes

Some public broadcasters have started using generative AI in some of their children’s programmes. The Swedish public broadcaster’s youth-focussed channel, SVT Barn, for example, has used it to explore how they “can create added value for the audience by understanding new technology”. It used Gen AI for at least five of its children programmes, integrating AI-generated gameplay elements for example. However, in a blog post explaining their use of AI, the SVT Barn programme manager, Petter Bragée, said content made with AI assistance remained just a fraction of their overall offering, and there weren’t any financial or cost savings incentives behind it.

For Bragée, testing these new technologies is essential to “create good children’s culture” enhanced by AI and Gen AI with ethical frameworks and directed by public service values.

According to Bragée, ignoring AI means ignoring the shift currently taking place in the media content production ecosystem – whether for children or not – because other major producers do not share the same hesitancy as public media. For him, the deal signed between Disney and the giant OpenAI was evidence of this. Even though the agreement between the two organisations fell through in March, the idea of licensing Disney’s intellectual property to an AI platform to generate short-form, user-prompted social videos at breakneck speed without any ethical safeguards was met with consternation.

When the deal fell through, Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said that, “The platform struggled to prevent the creation of non-consensual imagery and realistic misinformation, not to mention major copyright infringement.”

The Korean public broadcaster, KBS, has fully embraced AI, by declaring 2026 as its “first year of AI broadcasting”. Beyond using AI to enhance programme creativity, organisational efficiency, and expanded services, KBS also used Gen AI to bring back the traditional horror folklore series for children, “Legend of the village”. For this, they applied various AI technologies across all the production process, from character design, animation, and voice synthesis, reducing production time and costs.

The recurring challenge for public media

Although AI and generative AI can bring significant benefits to production processes – enabling cost savings while also, for example, improving audience engagement with content – all too familiar risks remain.

There is the issue of transparency: how to effectively communicate how AI has been used to aid production? There is also the question of public trust. Public media must demonstrate professionalism, ensuring that humans remain an integral and crucial part of the production process and that public service media values are maintained. This is particularly important in a world where competitors are innovating at breakneck speed without always offering the same guarantees.

There is an added responsibility that public media, as trusted deliverers of safe, educational and research-backed content for children, must also impart lessons about AI on those young people. Living up to their own standards is imperative.

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