Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot 'It' (wsj.com) 111
As a new generation grows up surrounded by AI, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots' role. From a report: 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.
AI is already causing plenty of jitters among adults, says Craig Le Clair, a principal analyst with Forrester and author of a new book on workforce automation. Many workers are worried about programming AI-driven equipment on the job, or fear AI will eliminate their positions altogether. "Machinists are having nervous breakdowns," he says. "We need to teach children the attitude that, 'I can collaborate and work with machines. I'm not threatened by them,'" he says. "And that education has to begin in preschool." Preschoolers can understand more about AI than you think. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding some surprising successes teaching AI to children as young as age 4, helping them program robots to learn from patterns or features in data.
AI is already causing plenty of jitters among adults, says Craig Le Clair, a principal analyst with Forrester and author of a new book on workforce automation. Many workers are worried about programming AI-driven equipment on the job, or fear AI will eliminate their positions altogether. "Machinists are having nervous breakdowns," he says. "We need to teach children the attitude that, 'I can collaborate and work with machines. I'm not threatened by them,'" he says. "And that education has to begin in preschool." Preschoolers can understand more about AI than you think. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding some surprising successes teaching AI to children as young as age 4, helping them program robots to learn from patterns or features in data.
Bad idea (Score:2)
If you've seen "The Animatrix" you should know why.
No, not this generation. The next one. (Score:2)
If modern civilization doesn't nuke itself into muddy-colored glass first, it will be their children that grow up with robots as peers. The current generation will grow up with robots that advertisers are desperately trying to pass off as "peers."
Re: No, not this generation. The next one. (Score:2)
https://youtu.be/nYsng5_5h3g [youtu.be]
Master IT (Score:1)
hy We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot 'It' ...confidence in their own ability to control and master it
And the cycle of slavery begins anew.
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Re: Master IT (Score:1)
Re:Master IT (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole notion that we're going to "teach our children" anything about cutting edge technology is ludicrous. It's always the kids who are fluent in the next great thing, exasperated trying to teach their idiot parents.
Re: Master IT (Score:2)
Using "she" as I'm strictly heterosexual.
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Using "she" as I'm strictly heterosexual.
Methinks he doth protest too much.
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Using "she" as I'm strictly heterosexual.
I'm pretty sure the first voice assistant with a name in SF was "Gay Deceiver", so calling your robot gay would at least be traditional.
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I keep my lawnmower locked in the shed. It's dark all the time there. In the summer, the heat is unbearable. In the winter, the cold is unimaginable.
I don't feel bad about it.
Tools are not slaves. Lawnmowers don't have feelings. Neither do robots.
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Simply do not make humanoid styled robots, why make effigies to human slavery, there is no need, it is just a form and one that logically, sorry to go all SJW, that should be avoided for obvious reasons and the is absolutely no need to adopt that form.
No. (Score:4, Insightful)
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A bigger danger is that most bipedal hominids can't actually name any distinction.
Well, most in the EU anyway.
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It isn't the gender that allows the words to be rearranged into any order, it's the noun declensions (In English we still have a little of this, like "I" and "me." No gender needed.)
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Noun gender is spanish is most of the time very easy to remember, if it ends with A it is a female, otherwise it is male.
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Noun gender is spanish is most of the time very easy to remember, if it ends with A it is a female, otherwise it is male.
Yeah, like "Aguila" or "foto." Oh wait, no. You mean, like "pianista." Oh no, that doesn't work either. What about words that end with the letter "n" or "r"? Nope, that doesn't work either. You have a nice heuristic that works for beginners. Fortunately, if you get the gender wrong in Spanish, you will still be understood.
For English speakers, getting the gender correct while speaking is one of the last things they get right. Even after years of living in a Spanish speaking country and studying the langua
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Bad example. I and me has in German etc. no gender either.
However there are languages were they have (but I have non in my mind at the moment, have to think harder).
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Bad example. I and me has in German etc. no gender either.
Hmmmm, I wasn't trying to give an example of gender with those words, I was trying to give an example of nouns that change based on whether they are the object or the subject. Apparently my writing wasn't clear.
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However there are languages were they have (but I have non in my mind at the moment, have to think harder).
I guess in Japanese, it is common for women to say "atashi" for I, and men to say "boku" for I, but not vice-versa. Usually the words aren't considered gendered in the same way, though.
Spanish has a word for 'us' (nosotras) which is clearly gendered as a female word.
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In other languages, every noun has a gender (usually feminine, masculine, neuter, though some have more). That gives those languages flexibility to rearrange word order without making it ambiguous which noun is the subject and which is the object.
Noun gender doesn't allow the language freedom to rearrange word order. What you are talking about is grammatical cases and markers (for example, in hebrew, objects are usually preceded by , in russian they will sometimes have some suffix, etc.)
Ironic use of German (Score:2)
That gives those languages flexibility to rearrange word order without making it ambiguous which noun is the subject and which is the object.
Assigning nouns genders is no help at all with word order and it is particularly ironic that you would use German as an example since it has vastly stricter rules about word order than English: verbs have to go at very specific locations in sentences and you have to follow time-manner-place order e.g. "I travel today by plane to London" is what you have to say in German whilst in English you could say that or "Today I travel to Berlin by plane" or "I travel to Berlin by plane today" etc.
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Time-manner-place in germany is as mandatory as adjective order in english, which means it's recommended but not really mandatory. The only rule regarding word order in german that is mandatory is that verb should be 2nd in main clauses and last in relative clauses.
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Sorry, you are mistaken.
You more or less can translate every of your english examples (more or less) word by word into proper german.
"Ich fliege/reise heute mit dem Flugzeug nach Berlin"
"Heute reise ich nach Berlin, mit dem Flugzeug"
"Ich reise nach Berlin, heute mit dem Flugzeug"
Etc. p.p.
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"Heute reise ich nach Berlin, mit dem Flugzeug"
Which does not have the same word order as English because the verb has to be the second idea which was exactly my point: English is more flexible in this regard. As for TMP while the word ordering may be understandable everything I have seen indicates that this is not formally correct German. Certainly, I used to lose marks at school if I got the order wrong and Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] appears to agree that the formal order is TMP. If TMP is not a requirement in German then why are there so many sources that mention it
Re: No. (Score:2)
danger to the distinction between Human and the Synths.
The distinction blurs when robots are given rights, like the Saudis did. Next, robots will have more rights than women in Saudi Arabia leading to robots having even more rights than non arabs. When and where will it stop? SJW's ambiguous use of neutral genders brings us closer to neutral use of terms like organic and synthetic thereby claiming no difference. Then what?
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Have you seen the Animatrix? There is one story where humans take offence at human-looking robots and start attacking them. What struck me is how similar it was to transphobia - the same stuff about how their appearance is deceptive, how they are some kind of freak or abomination.
We don't even need to wait for AI to reach human levels for this to be an issue. Most people find cruelty towards animals abhorrent. AI is already getting close to dog/cat levels of intelligence.
Beyond that there is the effect this
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That's just the same as any human, you can't know what is going on inside their head or what they are capable of.
Re: No. (Score:1)
did they recycle this? (Score:1)
This sounds a lot like the arguments I've read that the slave industry used in the 1800s in the South. i.e. its just as important that the young master learns his place as the slave. There was an indoctrination into the culture of masters that occurred very early on. Do we really want to go down that path?
It could also result in treating those who choose to be augmented as lesser because they've dirtied themselves.
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Do we want to shackle an asexual creature with the chains of gender?
Re: did they recycle this? (Score:2)
Your wrench doesn't care if you give it a gender or not, neither does your robot. Both have equal amounts of intelligence, feelings and self awareness.
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And those with Apple implants will look down on those with Google implants.
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Well,
the first "Cyber Punk" novel I read where a main character had an Apple Implant, Google did not exist yet.
To bad I don't remember which it was.
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Of course, the slaves were actual sentient beings, not just really sophisticated hammers.
One day, far in the future, we may need to ask ourselves if the machines have become more than just tools, and probably many will claim no more out of the benefits to them if society continues to treat them as sophisticated hammers, much like it was very convenient for the slave owners if they could keep people thinking the slaves were animals without souls.
But for now, robots are truly just machines. They do not dream
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True, for now. However, our behavior is far more animalistic than we like to admit. It is based more on habit and complex custom than reason. Our civilized mask is fragile in some ways.
How we interact with anything that has been given human characteristics means something. I would point to the case of dolls. They are a simple form of robot that has been around for millennia. When a child plays with them, we expect them to act somewhat humane to them because the way they treat dolls could carry over into the
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When next I get mod points, there will be +1 insightful for this.
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Dolls are well treated until they aren't. Later in life, we think nothing of stacking mannequins up like cordwood in a storeroom, then when they get old, they go in the trash masher.
I do see your point as well (I haven't really settled into either camp yet, I am truly undecided) If people get too used to barking commands at anthropomorphic machines, they may carry that behavior to interactions with actual humans as well.
Perhaps the Amish are right on that one, we shouldn't make our machines anthropomorphic
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No, we would just reprogram the robots to be happy slaves. Dilemma avoided!
Empathy (Score:2)
Never have empathy for the thing you need to bring you food and make you nice things.
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Montessori (Score:3)
Teach facts, not feelings.
The former allows the child to cognitively develop their own emotional framework via objective experience, the latter has on the one side, inferiority due to being fundamentally propaganda, on the other side, inferiority due to worse education results.
Cousin It? (Score:2)
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I have both google and amazon "smart" speakers. I changed the google voice to male just so I can refer to them as him and her. It's easier than saying google and She Who Must Not Be Named.
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If your language has genders, gender pronouns, obviously you will automatically refer to things with the gender pronoun. Does not make any sense at all to call it an it/es if it is a she or a he ... in German a computer is masculine, so it is "der" oder even "er", same for Robots.
(This sounds like a white man first world problem)
Btw: my computer has a female name, but still I refer to it as a "he". Unless I use voice control, then I use its name, as that is to what it is set to react.
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in German a computer is masculine
And a girl is an "it", as in Das Mädchen.
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As a word, yes. As a person, obviously not.
But it is weird, isn't it?
Interesting too is that genders often are the opposite if you compare "germanic languages" with "romanic languages", in german based languages moon is male, in roman it is female, sun is female and in roman it is male, cat is female and in roman it is male etc.
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I haven't been listening to that much NPR lately. It probably has to do with my daily commute now being five minutes and not 45.
The voice I remember, with relief that I don't have to hear it anymore is:
"Andim Meeshell Norris." That was always gratting. Norris! Norris! NORRIS!
Re:Cousin It? (Score:4, Interesting)
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"[NPR] is an organization that is so evenhanded it covers a kick to the crotch by talking both to the crotch and the foot."-Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (an NPR news comedy program)
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Useless (Score:4, Interesting)
Human behavior ist conditioned by convenience, not by formal correctness. If it is more conventient to call the robot him/her because he looks like a him/her, people will do.
Don't Like The Idea (Score:2)
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Shirley you’re not serious.
Not too terribly helpful. (Score:2)
Kids will think 'magically' about stuff all the time - it takes a long time to sort out what consistently does what in the world.
Kids don't have a hard time thinking about household pets as functionally different either from humans - bots/AI canned/algorithmic responses as they exist now might fool a couple kids for a few go-arounds, but forcing a constant language modifier on them when speaking about them isn't terribly helpful in solving that little riddle.
Eventually, AI will start blurring more an more l
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Kids will think 'magically' about stuff all the time - it takes a long time to sort out what consistently does what in the world.
Kids have been thinking everything is magic since time began. That's part of being a kid. I went from thinking things I was growing up with were magic, to learning how they worked, to making products that are magic to today's kids. It is how technology and society has always progressed.
There are still things that seem like magic. Forge welding still seems like magic, more that we figured it out through trial and error. "Take the black lumpy stuff. And this other stuff. And smash it hard and he's a sword". E
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I don't remember thinking that anything inanimate worked on on magic when I was little. I do remember thinking that the TV had a very long reel of film inside of it that made it work, and that the footage of the ships on Battlestar Galactica (original 70s series) was footage of real ships (yeah, the truth about that was a real let down)
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What do you think Alexa is? A person, a robot, a computer, a..
It's a Robot.
Kids are smarter than most people give them credit for. Understanding that it's a Robot.
When Alexa become mobile, or even just gets some moving mechanical parts, I might grudgingly concede it's a robot...
...until that day arrives it most definitely isn't!
Alternative submission title (Score:2)
“Why We Should Care That Some Guy Wrote a Book”
Robots pretend... (Score:2)
...to be human, to be smarter than humans, & to understand what we're saying (They don't). It's not surprising that people who don't understand AI believe them. Imagine if nobody knew about magic & we were presented with magicians. How could we tell whether they were actually doing the impossible or not?
Just as reputable magicians are honest & forthcoming that what they do is illusion so that they aren't perceived as liars/confidence tricksters when people find out how the tricks are done, robot
Your computer (Score:1)
AI as a boondoggle is just a really fast calculator.
Call your AI project what ever you want.
Like generations called their servers, computers, parts of a network.
A name, a number, something from sci fi, go full deity.
Smart people have worked with "machines" since the 1940's.
What to teach about code?
Some gov/mil/nation/company/NGO/cult "funded' the AI project and the "AI" is going to ration/do/design/war/learn "something" as a result..
Find out who pays for the AI and furth
devalue anyone (Score:1)
children won't be able to differentiate between man and machine. if they can tell a machine to STFU. they can they anyone to STFU. it will be a world of assholes.
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That is a much more legit concern today. I have seen more than one suggestion that the various assistant devices should have a mode where they only respond if you say please exactly to help children to remember to be polite when making a request.
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Kids learn social dominance hierarchies very easily, and can easily learn that you can treat your robots like shit, but not other humans.
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Yes, as they get older. But it works best if they know how to be polite in the first place.
It Should Be Illegal for Computers to Utter "I" (Score:1)
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Inaccuracies and troublesome tendencies (Score:1)
They aren't 'peers' any more than a toaster is their 'peer'. Their 'peers' are other human children.
Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers.
It's not just children. It's also adults who think the so-called 'AI' companies and the media keep hyping are a mechanical person inside the box. Wouldn't at all be surprised if people think a 'self driving car' is going to have
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This has been going on since the '70s. Call a company with a billing dispute and inevitably the CSR would say something like " THE COMPUTER says you owe X dollars' (yes, you could actually hear the bold italic all caps) as if that was the end of the discussion. That didn't end until people who had home computers started replying "Well, MY COMPUTER says I don't".
Slowly but surely, as people are more exposed to robots (anthropomorphic and otherwise) the same understanding will become more common.
I wonder what name AI will come up with for us . . (Score:2)
Folks demand calling something " it " because they're afraid of being equaled, surpassed or even replaced as the dominant species on the planet.
Folks far smarter than I with plenty of letters behind their names typically think of it this way:
"The study of psychology teaches us that when someone resorts to name calling, it usually speaks to feelings of inferiority and a feeling of inadequacy of the person doing the name calling. People stoop to the process of name calling when they feel lesser and need to m
Why? Boats are female, why can't robots be to? (Score:2)
The opposing approach... (Score:3)
I have a friend who teaches her children to thank Siri, with the idea of inculcating politeness.
D. A. R. Y. L. (Score:2)
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It won't happen in our lifetime; however, you can pattern match a human enough to fool people and that has been done to limited degrees years ago already. That will continue but not to the point of being real-- ways of fooling people will just continue to expand. Fool experts then try to begin to debate what consciousness really is... It's not just conforming to expectations of those trying to define the test and then learning the pattern to fool those tests.
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If the day should come where a robot can do anything
that a reasonably intelligent human can do (big "if"),
then people born after that time will grow up
accepting these things as fellow sentient beings.
Then all of these philosophical arguments of man v.s machine will go
where they belong - in the back of a Philosophy 101 text.
In the end, it's what something does that matters, not what it is.
Racists in the bud (Score:2)
You have to teach them when they're young about those uppity robots who look down on their betters.
Welcome to Paranoia (Score:2)
Love the Computer! Trust the Computer!
Teach critical thinking instead. (Score:2)
Teach kids to think critically. Then they'll understand the robot is what it is, and have the mental flexibility to adapt in case AI does somehow cross the line into sentience. While also retaining the ability to give an affectionate title (in much the same way cars, ships and a whole host of other inanimate objects are referred to as male or female) to obtain extra moments of cheeriness in the world.
Somewhat fed up with this indoctrination approach: "You must do exactly what you're told. No deviation, i
Get ready (Score:1)
Sounds stupid (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe I missed it but as far as I can tell at no point does it explain why we need to call robots it.
All it says is that they teach their kids to say "it", not why.
The article seems confused (Score:2)
Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers.
And then end with.....
Preschoolers can understand more about AI than you think.
And here I thought this was going to be some article about assuming gender identity and blah blah blah.
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"I believe the 4 year old preschool kids should not spent so much time with computers"
"Yeah, you are right, but it comes in handy that at least one in the household can fix it when it is acting weird"
The irony of pocket knowledge (Score:2)
Do you guys EVER have different parts of brains talking to each other? I swear people are increasingly living in these knowledge bubbles where no two bubbles interact with each other.
is it even possible (Score:1)
\o/ (Score:1)
Presumably this position was defined by an AI?
\o/ (Score:1)
So kind of Trump to provide pressure driving adoption of a new app store to loyal Huawei users.
More AI Bullshit (Score:2)
"Today's small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers."
No they're not.
What about boats? or cars? (Score:2)
People have been referring to boats as "she" for centuries. People sometimes refer to cars as "he" or "she," depending on the person and the type of car. People haven't become confused by this. I think we'll do OK understanding the difference between robots and people too.
If I were a kid today (Score:2)
I would call the walking trashcan sitting next to me "It". Sorry folks, but we are not going to see a Commander Data for a verrrrrrrry long time, if ever.
Oh, I called the robot a "walking trashcan", that might be seen as hate speech! %{