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posted by martyb on Thursday August 29 2019, @03:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-don't-believe-promises-of-cake dept.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

As a new generation grows up surrounded by artificial intelligence, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots' role

If you want your preschooler to grow up with a healthy attitude toward artificial intelligence, here's a tip: Don't call that cute talking robot 'he' or 'she.'

Call the robot 'it.'

Today's small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a booming education-tech industry can speed children's learning, but they also can be confusing to them, research shows. Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers.

The long-term consequences of growing up surrounded by AI-driven devices won't be clear for a while. But an expanding body of research is lending new impetus to efforts to expand technology education beyond learning to code, to understanding how AI works. Children need help drawing boundaries between themselves and the technology, and gaining confidence in their own ability to control and master it, researchers say."

[...] How to Raise an AI-Savvy Child

* Use the pronoun "it" when referring to a robot.

* Display a positive attitude toward the beneficial effects of AI.

* Encourage your child to explore how robots are built.

* Explain that humans are the source of AI-driven devices' intelligence.

* Guard against AI-propelled toys that presume too much, such as claiming to be your child's best friend.

* Invite children to consider the ethics of AI design, such as how a bot should behave after winning a game.

* Encourage skepticism about information received from smart toys and devices.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:19PM (18 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:19PM (#887335)

    Use the pronoun "it" when referring to a robot.

    I think it makes sense to "dehumanize" robots and AIs, because after all, they aren't human. It is there to do my bidding, and not the other way around.
    Similarly, don't train your kids to say "thank you" and "please" to an AI/robot. It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender (or say "please" and "thank you" to it) The difference is that these devices try to trick you into thinking that they are more than lifeless silicon.

    Display a positive attitude toward the beneficial effects of AI.

    Why? The way AI is utilized to nudge and influence you does not seem like a beneficial effect. Teaching a kid that yelling commands and having them executed without question, is a good life skill (instead of being ordered by their parents to shut the lights, having to walk over to the switch and flipping it in the physical world), is beyond me.
    I actually still have to see these so-called benefits of AI.

    Encourage your child to explore how robots are built.

    Sure, it they show the aptitude to it.

    Explain that humans are the source of AI-driven devices' intelligence.

    See above. Also they don't really have intelligence at this point, they have strong correlation and retrieval speed abilities, but not intelligence.

    Guard against AI-propelled toys that presume too much, such as claiming to be your child's best friend.

    Or maybe not get AI propelled toys? These types of toys will for sure claim to be your child's best friend, and on that tells you that it (the best friend) would be even happier if only you bought more from Company X (and Company Y next week). Imagine the dependency that can be built from an early age.
    (And then to say that I thought the Mormon Brigham Young University was called "bring them young university" so that they could brainwash kids early on)

    Invite children to consider the ethics of AI design, such as how a bot should behave after winning a game.

    This is an interesting idea, but again, don't humanize it too much...

    Encourage skepticism about information received from smart toys and devices.

    Quite so!

    Before anyone accuses me of being a Luddite, which I am, there is a big difference between the textile machines and these AIs. The textile machines only took away your job. They did not try to influence you beyond that. The devices themselves were not insidious beyond that. They were non-interactive nor did they try to pretend to be human. The AIs and robots of today are peddled by organizations that have as sole purpose to influence and, let's face it, brainwash you. That last bit: the motivations of the companies behind these devices, that is what makes the big difference. In the last 15 years, these organizations have shown themselves to not be worthy of our trust because they will fuck you over at any possible chance they get. And when they get caught, they try to get off with a simple apology that boils down to nothing more but a "we're sorry that you found out about this" or "we're sorry you didn't understand we were going to fuck you over".

    Now where's my rocking chair and bottle of whiskey? Ah, there on the porch in front of my lawn...

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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:24PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:24PM (#887342) Homepage Journal

    LOL, get out of my head ;) Still, not all our points were exactly the same.

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:34PM (4 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:34PM (#887351) Journal

    It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender

    Tell that to Spanish speakers, who assume all destornilladores are masculine.

    LOL at "Bring 'em Young" though.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:59PM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:59PM (#887366) Journal

      It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender

      And pipe fittings either

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday August 30 2019, @12:25PM

        by deimtee (3272) on Friday August 30 2019, @12:25PM (#887720) Journal

        It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender

        And pipe fittings either

        You're kidding right? That one does make sense, same logic as on nuts, bolts, and other threaded objects.

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @06:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @06:40PM (#887430)

      One thing that Spanish speaking natives understand intuitively is the clear difference between gender (as grammar) and sex (as biological).
      Words have gender, animals and plants sex. And if you tell an Spaniard about your male screwdriver outside of a sexual innuendo context surely will get a confused look wondering what kind of screwdriver you are talking about
      That is why we find funny when foreigners use the wrong grammar gender for words, that has nothing to do with sex but more like you confuse a cat with a dog or call a horse a cow.
      But sadly some groups have been pushing very hard to impose and confuse both terms and redefine the language to advance their political agenda.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @07:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @07:00PM (#887438)

      Grammatical gender has nothing to do with actual gender. Having knives, forks and spoons have different grammatical gender allows Germans to ask for it and get the right one. As it would translate as him,her or it depending upon which it is. It's also useful for relative clauses where all 3 could have appeared in the previous clause and you'd know which one you're referring to in the next.

      So, giving grammatical genders to objects can be useful in some ways.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by vux984 on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:46PM (6 children)

    by vux984 (5045) on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:46PM (#887358)

    Encourage your child to explore how robots are built.

    Sure, it they show the aptitude to it.

    Even if they don't, the technology should be demystified.

    I think it makes sense to "dehumanize" robots and AIs, because after all, they aren't human. It is there to do my bidding, and not the other way around.

    It needs to be more subtle than that. I think there's a bit of an overreaction here. Nobody would teach their child to play with dolls, barbies, action figures, fisher price figures, or lego minifigs as "it". Even Optimus Prime is a 'he' not an 'it' while playing with it. That is the point of 'play' and 'pretend' that the toys do assume 'personhood' within the scope of play. That's perfectly normal and nothing to be worried about. But you do of course want to teach that toys are toys; and that they are things not people.

    I generally agree with you though... just don't give your kids AI toys that pretend to be their friends. Kids are just as happy with a teddy bear; they cost less, last longer, and are easier to wash. :)

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @04:55PM (#887362)

      It needs to be more subtle than that. I think there's a bit of an overreaction here. Nobody would teach their child to play with dolls, barbies, action figures, fisher price figures, or lego minifigs as "it". Even Optimus Prime is a 'he' not an 'it' while playing with it. That is the point of 'play' and 'pretend' that the toys do assume 'personhood' within the scope of play. That's perfectly normal and nothing to be worried about. But you do of course want to teach that toys are toys; and that they are things not people.

      OP here... You make a good point and I'm willing to change my position.
      (how's that for an internet-first? :) I commend you, vux984 )

    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:12PM

      by acid andy (1683) on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:12PM (#887374) Homepage Journal

      Ooh yeah. Maybe it's practice for them to objectify people in later life. The next generation of managers perhaps?

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:25PM (3 children)

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:25PM (#887386) Journal

      .... or lego minifigs as "it". Even Optimus Prime is a 'he' not an 'it' while playing with it.

      That's because Optimus Prime is a fictional male character.

      What gender pronoun do you use to describe the individual bricks? How about some blinkenlights you built with Mindstorm?

      • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday August 30 2019, @02:30AM (2 children)

        by vux984 (5045) on Friday August 30 2019, @02:30AM (#887609)

        That's because Optimus Prime is a fictional male character

        It's a transforming robot truck. What exactly is "male" about it? The timbre of it's voice?
        Not that I disagree, because I completely agree that Optimus Prime is male; but it's pure personification.

        What gender pronoun do you use to describe the individual bricks? How about some blinkenlights you built with Mindstorm?

        "it" generally, but watch kids play and if they lack mini figs, even individual bricks become him and her as they stand in for characters in the kid's imagination. They'll build a couch out of bricks and then put a couple loose bricks on it and those bricks are people now, with genders, names, and favorite ice cream flavors...

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday August 30 2019, @03:09PM (1 child)

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 30 2019, @03:09PM (#887777)

          It's a transforming robot truck. What exactly is "male" about it? The timbre of it's voice?

          Its as male as Luke Skywalker, who is also a fictional character.

          Bad SN automobile analogies are a big thing around here and I'm pretty good at it; its worth considering that if Optimus Prime were supposed to be a lesbian, local cultural norms would dictate she's a transforming Subaru, not a transforming truck.

          A bit of google shows there is in fact a transforming Subaru Impreza WRC and shockingly enough it seems to be a dude with biceps and codpiece and golden blonde hair and big puffy moon boots (all in a robotic sense), when I was expecting baggy sporty clothes, hairy legs, and short dyed rainbow hair.

          This is one of those things where if I had a bit more spare time on my hands I could corner the market on those Impreza WRC transformers, subject them to reassignment surgery in my workshop to fit prevailing lesbian stereotypes, then make an unholy shitload of money selling them for a thousand bucks a piece on ebay to virtue signalling progressives. "I'm a better parent than all of you because I bought my son a Lesbian Impreza transformer" and so forth.

          In the old days, like the 80s, Transformers were pretty alt-right and based. As I recall Megatron was literally a Walther P-38 pistol. So its a market place ripe for the (usual folks) to subvert via "lesbian Impreza" or whatever.

          • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday August 30 2019, @03:48PM

            by vux984 (5045) on Friday August 30 2019, @03:48PM (#887793)

            Its as male as Luke Skywalker, who is also a fictional character.

            Luke Skywalker is a fictional human man. I see what you are saying but not sure I really follow the argument. Are you saying because Luke is fictional the proper gender is "it" because being fictional means he's genderless? Or that because Luke is fictional his gender is whatever the author decides it is?

            Bad SN automobile analogies are a big thing around here and I'm pretty good at it

            Yes. That analogy was truly awful. :)

  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:13PM (2 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:13PM (#887377) Journal

    >because after all, they aren't human.
    THANK GOD

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 29 2019, @06:23PM (1 child)

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday August 29 2019, @06:23PM (#887423) Journal

      Fleshist!

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday August 30 2019, @12:36PM

        by Bot (3902) on Friday August 30 2019, @12:36PM (#887725) Journal

        I prefer the term "integrated circuits supremacist", in short, realist.

        --
        Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:52PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:52PM (#887406)

    It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender

    Unless you're French, Italian or Spanish.

    or say "please" and "thank you" to it

    That would be Canadian...

    these devices try to trick you into thinking that they are more than lifeless silicon

    Do they? I guess the Turing test comes with different levels, depending on the sophistication of the proctor.

    They did not try to influence you beyond that

    But: newspapers, leaflets, movies, radio, TV...

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @08:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @08:51PM (#887487)

    It also makes no sense to give a screwdriver a gender

    Too late: Romance languages already do that. Screwdrivers are masculine.