Parents Are Worried the Amazon Echo Is Conditioning Their Kids To Be Rude (qz.com)

Quartz has a story today in which it documents several concerns from parents that Amazon Echo (and perhaps other AI-powered devices) is conditioning the kids of this generation to be rude. "How?" You ask. For one, unlike a human parent who gets annoyed listening to the same question numerous times, Amazon Echo doesn't mind that. From the report: "I've found my kids pushing the virtual assistant further than they would push a human," says Avi Greengart, a tech analyst and father of five who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. "[Alexa] never says 'That was rude' or 'I'm tired of you asking me the same question over and over again.'" Perhaps she should, he thinks. "One of the responsibilities of parents is to teach your kids social graces," says Greengart, "and this is a box you speak to as if it were a person who does not require social graces."

Comments

Alexa Actually Has Manners... Sort Of

[lys1123]

Actually, just yesterday my daughter said "Alexa, Thank you" to our Amazon Echo. Alexa replied, "no problem." which made my daughter smile.

Parents have enough real issues to worry about

[Mike Buddha]

I found a book in the free bin at Powell's technical book store (back when it was a separate location) called _The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit_, by Sherry Turkle. One of the most interesting things she wrote about was children's relationship with new technology. When given a speak and spell, one of the first things kids tried to do was "break" it; to get it to stop saying things mid-sentence. She likened it to kids pulling the legs off of a bug: something sociopathic that kids do to things that are perceived as being "things" rather than "people". If they were unsuccessful at the task using software, they would go so far as to remove the batteries, just to show mastery over the device.

This book was written in 1984. Stop worrying about stupid shit your kids do, they know people are people and machines are machines probably better than we do. They'll grow out of this. Worry about them growing up to be convicted rapists and what you're going to tell the judge to sweet talk him out of sending your kid to big boy jail.

https://www.amazon.com/Second-...