From MSN:
Kids adore their new robot siblings.
As millions of American families buy robotic voice assistants to turn off lights, order pizzas and fetch movie times, children are eagerly co-opting the gadgets to settle dinner table disputes, answer homework questions and entertain friends at sleepover parties.
Many parents have been startled and intrigued by the way these disembodied, know-it-all voices — Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft’s Cortana — are impacting their kids’ behavior, making them more curious but also, at times, far less polite.
In just two years, the promise of the technology has already exceeded the marketing come-ons. The disabled are using voice assistants to control their homes, order groceries and listen to books. Caregivers to the elderly say the devices help with dementia, reminding users what day it is or when to take medicine.
For children, the potential for transformative interactions are just as dramatic — at home and in classrooms. But psychologists, technologists and linguists are only beginning to ponder the possible perils of surrounding kids with artificial intelligence, particularly as they traverse important stages of social and language development.
“How they react and treat this nonhuman entity is, to me, the biggest question,” said Sandra Calvert, a Georgetown University psychologist and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center. “And how does that subsequently affect family dynamics and social interactions with other people?”
. . . .
Boosters of the technology say kids typically learn to acquire information using the prevailing technology of the moment — from the library card catalogue, to Google, to brief conversations with friendly, all-knowing voices. But what if these gadgets lead children, whose faces are already glued to screens, further away from situations where they learn important interpersonal skills?
. . . .
“These devices don’t have emotional intelligence,” said Allison Druin, a University of Maryland professor who studies how children use technology. “They have factual intelligence.”
Children certainly enjoy their company, referring to Alexa like just another family member.
“We like to ask her a lot of really random things,” said Emerson Labovich, a fifth-grader in Bethesda, Md., who pesters Alexa with her older brother Asher.
Link to the rest at MSN and thanks to Felix for the tip.
Every new technology ruins, simply ruins, the young. If there was never anything new, society would advance without bounds.
I’d be more worried about those millions of kids being trained to ‘pass tests’ and not on how to actually think a problem through, but that’s just silly old me …
Right now there’s a whole generation of people who are having difficulty with interpersonal relationships.
I believe the article I read were talking about Japan, but I see that here in America. At restaurants, people are on their phones instead of talking to the person in front of them.
Once I witnessed a fight via cell phone when I was in a fast food place. The couple kept texting each other–although they were sitting right across from each other. It was interesting to watch.
I know that at social family gatherings, my single relatives are always on their phone. Facebook, twitter, news. Whatever. They don’t sit and actually talk to anyone.
It’s sad. Really really sad.
Japanese culture looks odd from the outside but it works for them. (Mostly. High youngster suicide rate is big issue.) There is a lot of obvious formalism atop subtleties.
I’d be leery of reports from western observers.
Now, among westerness, the lack of social skills among humans in robot societies is predictable since robots are effectively slaves and slave cultures do not shine for their sensitivity. Again, Asimov nailed it way back in THE NAKED SUN with his Aurorans.
We have been warned.
We also have one thing Asimovian robots don’t generally have: snark. Snarky robots are a common fixture in pop culture going back a couple of decades. Our faux-AIs do try to show a sense of humor that just might teach kids how to engage and how to deflect.
It’s not all bad.
The assistants may only be faux-AI but they are moving us into Asimovian territory. I, ROBOT (the book, not the dreadful movie) may become required reading. 🙂
Even Susan Calvin herself fell prey to anthropomorphism and she was a low EI person ala Sherlock Holmes. Asimov really nailed it.