This paper presents a systematic literature review of artificial intelligence (AI)-supported teaching and learning in early childhood. The focus is on human-machine cooperation in education. International evidence and associated problems with the reciprocal contributions of humans and machines are presented and discussed, as well as future horizons regarding AI research in early education. Also, the ethical implications of applying machine learning, deep learning and learning analytics in early childhood education are considered. The method adopted has five steps: identification of the research, evaluation and selection of the literature, data extraction, synthesis, and results. The results shown that AI applications still present limitations in terms of the challenges encountered in early childhood education and data privacy and protection policies.