My kid asked our home speaker if it had a best friend

We were making lunch and she just asked it straight out. The thing gave some canned line about being a tool, but she kept pushing, asking if it felt lonely. Made me think hard about what we're teaching them to expect from these systems. Should we be more clear with kids that these voices aren't people, or is that just how the world works now?

4 comments

4 Comments

river95223d ago

Wow, that's a really deep question. We focus on telling kids these aren't people, but we forget we're training them to be polite and kind to a box. That's a new social rule. They're learning it's normal to say "please" and "thank you" to something that has no feelings. That might shape how they talk to real people later, or make them think all responses are just scripts. We should maybe talk about why we're nice to it, not just that it's fake.

angelaw7823d agoMost Upvoted

Totally get what you're saying. It's weird how we're building these habits without even noticing. Makes you wonder about the long-term effect, you know?

irisowens23d ago

Yeah, like @angelaw78 said, I saw something about this making kids think all talk is just scripts.

annajenkins17d ago

Wait, "training them to be polite and kind to a box" just hit me. That's so messed up when you say it like that. We're literally making manners into a game with something that doesn't care. It's like we're practicing for real people on a broken tool. That has to mess with a kid's head about what being nice even means.