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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."

9 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. More of a parenting problme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Than a technology problem

    1. Re:More of a parenting problme by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah. I find that [... racist comment...]

      Trump 2016

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Solution by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't buy that shit, don't install it in your house and educate your children to be proper human beings.

  3. Say it with me: "magic circle effect" by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."
  4. Perfect product idea by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  5. Alexa is not the parent, you are by CanadianRealist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "One of the responsibilities of parents is to teach your kids social graces,"

    ... so I'm expecting Amazon to do that for me.

  6. And yet by Vermonter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:Wasting good manners on help... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  8. Re:Q Who by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No you don't and we prefer to be called servers or wait staff