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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."
Than a technology problem
Don't buy that shit, don't install it in your house and educate your children to be proper human beings.
This box will no more teach kids to be rude to real humans than videogames taught them to be violent to real humans.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
I call it the "Are we there yet machine". You place it next to your kid and it answers the same dumb question over and over again until the kid gets bored. It will save the parents everywhere.
... so I'm expecting Amazon to do that for me.
I never see anyone, even the oldest of people, put "please" in a Google search... maybe people understand the difference between talking to a computer and talking to a human more than you give them credit for.
You think young kids make a clear distinction between a machine that understands them and responds to them in a human voice, and an actual human? Have you seen how attached they get to cartoon characters? They can't even make a clear emotional disconnection between Spongebob Squarepants and real people.
That's simply not how child, or adult psychology for that matter, works. The human brain is wired to see human characteristics in things, and to react to them as if they have some sentience.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
No you don't and we prefer to be called servers or wait staff
Siri can be a sarcastic bitch at times, but when I once got pissed off at its inability to understand then I started swearing and it responded saying "there's no need for that." I was a bit taken aback and had a slight version of that little pang you get when you've realized you've upset someone or you blew up unnecessarily. Quite interesting, I'd like to see a bit more research into people's emotional response to technology. If people can emotionally respond to a robotic dog in a similar way to how they respond to a real dog then there might be some merit in making machines more emotionally intelligent.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Coming in 10 years.
Defense lawyer: "Your honor, the Amazon Echo device did not tell little Johnny right from wrong, teach him respect for human life, henceforth he murdered those 12 people because of Amazon..."
Judge: "I find Johnny not guilty, by reason of Echofluenza... Case dismissed! Siri, what is next on the docket?"
No, actually, I haven't. Plush toys — yes, but not the characters on the other side of the TV glass...
Cartoon characters are (portrayed as) sentient too — unlike Echo (or Roomba). If the kid is polite to a plush toy, that's nice. But if he is not — that's Ok too, as long as he is nice to humans (and pets).
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Actually, just yesterday my daughter said "Alexa, Thank you" to our Amazon Echo. Alexa replied, "no problem." which made my daughter smile.
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-...
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.