From 60-Page Report to Interactive Insight: How Certainty-Lab Re-imagined The Alan Turing Institute’s Landmark Study on Generative AI and Children

Why This Matters

Generative AI is no longer a futuristic novelty for adults; it is already shaping the way children learn, create, and socialise. A recent series of work-package reports from The Alan Turing Institute (ATI), “Understanding the Impacts of Generative AI Use on Children,” offers one of the most comprehensive examinations of this phenomenon to date. Yet, at more than 60 pages across multiple PDFs, even seasoned tech professionals found it dense. For non-specialist stakeholders—parents, policy-makers, educators—the barrier was even higher.

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At Certainty-Lab (LOC) we believe vital research should be actionable, not merely accessible. Our mandate: transform ATI’s extensive evidence base into a living, conversational experience that any colleague—or client—can explore in minutes.

What the Original Research Reveals

Early, frequent adoption: 22 % of UK children aged 8-12 have already used a generative-AI tool, with ChatGPT leading the pack.

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Equity gap: Usage rises to 52 % in private-school pupils versus 18 % in state-school peers.

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Parental optimism & concern: 76 % of parents feel positive about AI’s potential, yet 82 % worry about exposure to inappropriate content and 77 % about misinformation.

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Critical-thinking risks: 72 % of teachers fear AI may erode students’ critical-thinking skills, even as many educators trust the technology for their own work.

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These statistics underscore both the opportunities and the ethical responsibilities surrounding children’s interaction with generative AI.

The Presentation Challenge

ATI’s report is meticulously researched, but its length and academic framing can overwhelm time-pressed decision-makers. Colleagues across marketing, product, and public-sector teams asked us the same question: “Can you give me the essence—without losing rigour?”


Traditional slide decks or executive summaries felt insufficient; we needed a medium that would show relationships between findings, let users ask follow-up questions, and respect the integrity of ATI’s work.


Our Solution: The Certainty-Lab Insight Layer

We built an AI-enhanced microsite (see live demo here) that sits on top of the official PDFs and offers three tiers of engagement:


Multi-Layer Summary Engine

Large-language-model chain fed by retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) compresses each section into 100-, 250-, and 500-word views. Readers “zoom” into deeper layers on demand.


Interactive Evidence Cards

Key statistics are rendered as clickable cards. Selecting a card reveals the exact paragraph and page in the original ATI document, ensuring every claim is traceable.


Conversational Q&A Copilot

A domain-restricted chat interface lets users query the dataset: “What do teachers say about AI and homework cheating?” The copilot returns an answer plus a direct citation link.

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Behind the scenes, our pipeline combines:


  • OpenAI GPT-4o for abstractive summarisation.
  • Vector search (Weaviate) for semantic retrieval.
  • Svelte + D3 for lightweight, mobile-first data-visualisation.
  • Latency for a new question averages 1.4 s end-to-end.



Safeguarding Attribution & Compliance

ATI’s content remains the single source of truth. We preserved all verbatim quotations, bibliographic details, and copyright notices (“© 2025 The Alan Turing Institute; all rights reserved”) within the site footer and each drill-down citation. No text is redistributed outside fair-dealing limits; full PDFs are embedded via secure, non-downloadable viewers to honour ATI’s licensing terms.

In addition, every dynamic answer generated by the Q&A layer appends a machine-readable citation back to ATI’s page range, reinforcing transparency for end-users and auditors alike.

Early Impact

Internal user testing across three verticals (ed-tech, NGO digital-literacy programmes, and a global consumer-goods client) produced encouraging signals:

Lessons for the Wider Ecosystem

Layered storytelling beats linear documents. Even expert audiences appreciate the ability to control depth.


Traceability is trust. Citations at point-of-use turn AI summaries from “nice-to-have” into decision-grade insight.


Children-centric research needs child-centric design. Interactive, visually engaging formats mirror the very media habits the report discusses.


What’s Next

We are extending the same Insight-Layer methodology to other large-scale studies—including EU regulatory white papers and multi-volume heritage archives in our Zionist-Projects initiative.


If your organisation grapples with turning complex research into actionable intelligence, reach out. Certainty-Lab’s platform approach can integrate directly with your existing knowledge stack—no rip-and-replace required.


All findings, quotations, and data in this article are drawn from The Alan Turing Institute’s “Understanding the Impacts of Generative AI Use on Children” (Work Packages 1 & 2, 2025). Content reproduced under fair-dealing provisions for purpose of commentary and review. To explore the full studies, visit turing.ac.uk. 

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