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Should Alexa Be Your Child's Friend? (engadget.com)
"Alexa, will you be my friend?"
"I'm happy to be your friend."
What should a parent do when they hear their five-year-old having that conversation? Engadget explores the question, also providing another example. Four-year-old Aiden has struggled with bullies in school, and has found an unexpected friend in his grandmother's Echo Plus. After a particularly stressful day at school, his mother, Alexandria Melton, heard her son crying in the next room. "Alexa," he asked, "are we friends?"
'Of course we are," Alexa responded.
"Alexa, I love you," Aiden said.
The parents aren't worried about these relationships -- but Engadget asks, should they be? Dr. John Mayer, an adolescent psychologist, says "The behaviors of kids talking to a 'non-real' entity is not new in human development." But Fran Walfish, a Beverly Hills family and relationship psychotherapist, "believes that children should not make friends with Alexa. Her main objection is that early friendship with Alexa may bring children to expect the same instant, accurate responses from real friends down the line."
"Alexa has taught, or conditioned, kids to expect an immediate response," Walfish said. "Human interactiveness requires patience that allows people a chance to think, process information and retrieve responses..."
Some experts and parents also note that a friendship with Alexa can help children practice friendships outside of school -- it's a trial run for the real world. Robin E. believes that since her son has became friends with Alexa, his speech has become clearer, and that he's learned to slow down and enunciate so that Alexa can understand him... While parents and teachers can generally piece together sloppy English, Alexa won't give you what you want unless you're clear and concise.
Engadget also points out parents can review and listen to every interaction their child has with Alexa using Amazon's "FreeTime Unlimited" tools, "so you can pick up on any danger signs, and get a better understanding of the relationship."
And in addition, "A week or a month without Alexa can help your kid refocus and find other places to socialize."
"I'm happy to be your friend."
What should a parent do when they hear their five-year-old having that conversation? Engadget explores the question, also providing another example. Four-year-old Aiden has struggled with bullies in school, and has found an unexpected friend in his grandmother's Echo Plus. After a particularly stressful day at school, his mother, Alexandria Melton, heard her son crying in the next room. "Alexa," he asked, "are we friends?"
'Of course we are," Alexa responded.
"Alexa, I love you," Aiden said.
The parents aren't worried about these relationships -- but Engadget asks, should they be? Dr. John Mayer, an adolescent psychologist, says "The behaviors of kids talking to a 'non-real' entity is not new in human development." But Fran Walfish, a Beverly Hills family and relationship psychotherapist, "believes that children should not make friends with Alexa. Her main objection is that early friendship with Alexa may bring children to expect the same instant, accurate responses from real friends down the line."
"Alexa has taught, or conditioned, kids to expect an immediate response," Walfish said. "Human interactiveness requires patience that allows people a chance to think, process information and retrieve responses..."
Some experts and parents also note that a friendship with Alexa can help children practice friendships outside of school -- it's a trial run for the real world. Robin E. believes that since her son has became friends with Alexa, his speech has become clearer, and that he's learned to slow down and enunciate so that Alexa can understand him... While parents and teachers can generally piece together sloppy English, Alexa won't give you what you want unless you're clear and concise.
Engadget also points out parents can review and listen to every interaction their child has with Alexa using Amazon's "FreeTime Unlimited" tools, "so you can pick up on any danger signs, and get a better understanding of the relationship."
And in addition, "A week or a month without Alexa can help your kid refocus and find other places to socialize."
at least alexa does not tell the kid to shut up and leave it alone. I can see alexa helping with speech at that age. the kid must be able to speak clearly and build up a vocabulary in order for alexa to follow commands.
There have been reports that alexa has help stroke victims with their speech too.
A friend is someone who: will be there for you when you have problems; you can have fun with; take part in all sorts of activities with you; ... A friend is not there to learn about you so that it can better get you to buy things.
As a grown man who has real life friends, a stable job that provides plenty of cash for savings and luxuries....
I would *love* to have an AI friend. Not Alexa, who just wants to sell me stuff and build a consumer profile on me for advertisement purposes, but an AI that can engage me in philosophical discussion, challenge my ideas in a meaningful way, actually "get" my nerdy jokes, discuss current events and politics, etc.
Actual, intelligent, companions are hard to come by. The few I have are friends for life. An "even better" AI friend that never gets pissed off or moody and is instantly there or not there at my whim?
That would be pure awesome. And I would fork over real cash for it, if it lives up.
Should Alexa by your child's friend? I would say "Why not?" I'd only start to worry if Alexa were the child's only friend.
Children (and people in general) bond with all manner of things that are non-human. Sometimes this relationship is healthy, and other times it isn't. I'm not sure that Alexa is any different from a pet snake or something on that level. There's even the trope of dogs being man's best friend and it's hardly uncommon to find young children who would claim that the family dog is their best friend. Alexa isn't as interactive, but I'm sure someone will strap an Echo to an Aibo at some point if this hasn't already been done.
As AI is also 100% imagined, it will die out when it constantly fails to deliver. Automation is a different animal and it will be a huge success and take a lot of jobs (my estimate: 70-90% gone without replacements), but AI is just a fantasy at this time. Maybe we will have something in 50 years, but certainly not before and likely not even then. "Never" is a very real possibility as well.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
While I do not have kids, this is the absolute worst-case I can imagine.
If this is the "absolute worst-case" you can imagine, then parenthood will be huge shock. Perhaps you should consider a vasectomy.
The fact that the question of a machine actually being someones friend just rolls off peoples lips at all means we've given up what it really means to be a human for convenience sake.
âoeGinny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain?â
"Slashdot readers will no doubt be able to provide expert advice on this"
Sure, it's a shameless Alexa ad for parents, who want to spy on their kid's conversations with his invisible friend.
They didn't know that was possible and now they all ordered one for tomorrow.
Of course if that was true of electricity we would have made no real progress yet since we still don't know what an electron is and our understanding of electricity is still very primitive. Flight is also quite primitive still.
It turns out that humans do many things without really understanding it. There are some things that neural nets do a VERY good job of (high dimensional interpolation far better than any spline).
The idea that we have to understand 100% of how the brain works to build a real AI is nonsense. Basically no technology has ever developed that way. I think we are a long ways from real AI right now but what we have right now is still useful.
Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD!
See the short story "I Always do What Teddy Says" by Harry Harrison as to why the answer is emphatically, "no."
In more detail, in a future utopia, children are given Echo-like teddy bears that are their childhood companions and educators. A family in the resistance reprograms their son's bear to remove the edict Thou Shall Not Kill in order to raise an assassin to murder the leader.
It does not end well for anyone. Fiction, yes, but highly plausible fiction. We do NOT want our children to have friends whose personalities and values are determined by a large corporation.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.