Outsourcing to AI Among Youth: Learning, Legal, and Ethical Implications

  • Date: May 16 - August 14, 2026
  • Location: Tompkins County
  • Faculty sponsor: Valerie Reyna, Department of Psychology
  • Campus-Based mentor/supervisor: Allison Herman, Department of Psychology
  • Field-based mentor/supervisor: Alexa Maille, Director, New York State 4-H, Extension Associate, BCTR
  • Stipend: $6,000
BJM students created playground models to accompany their presentations.

The rapid adoption of AI into educational environments brings both tremendous opportunities and challenges for youth, and learning how to navigate such environments will be critical for young peoples’ success.   This project will help young people understand the implications of AI use for their own learning in school while also considering the ethical and legal implications of relying on AI outputs.   For example, when does reliance on AI help and when can it hurt one’s learning?  When does reliance on AI cross the line from a helpful study aid to outsourcing students’ assignments to AI?   This project will investigate students’ perceptions of these issues and will empower young people via education to think for themselves and to use AI to augment rather than detract from their own learning and development.        

Roles and responsibilities 

The student intern will help us develop and run the study among adolescents participating in CCE programming, including 4-H, and Cornell Undergraduates. The intern will work closely with Dr. Reyna’s research team and meet with our CCE partners to extract content from scientific articles about psychological and educational outcomes. Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, meeting with the project team (including CCE partners), stimuli development and validation, survey design and delivery methodology, data entry, and data analysis.

This opportunity is available to students in Cornell University's College of Human Ecology.

  • The preferred candidate will demonstrate a high level of enthusiasm for Dr. Reyna’s research in risk communication and medical decision making, as well as for applying this research in outreach and educational settings, including working with youth.
  • The candidate will also have completed general coursework in at least one of the following:
    • Human Development; Psychology; Human Biology, Health and Society; Neurobiology; or related fields.
  • The candidate should be in excellent academic standing.

Learning outcomes 

The intern will have the opportunity to gain skills in program development, translation and application of research to real-world problems, working with others, translating research into outreach and educational materials, and youth development programming. They will also have the opportunity to gain knowledge of psychology and related behavioral sciences, medicine, public health, artificial intelligence (e.g., large language models and implementations of generative artificial intelligence models), and issues in education.