Download How AI is affecting kids` brains

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Are robots affecting the way your children see the world?
Janne Moren, Creative Commons (2005) ©
REPORT 12 Jun 14
How AI is affecting kids' brains
Technology is part of every aspect of our lives. But amongst the innovation, there are questions about what exactly we’re trading in for these
advancements. Do smartphones actually disconnect us? Has Google made us stupid? And is making friends with robots messing up our kids?
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The little girl in the YouTube video is adorable. Staring intently at her new playmate, she shrieks with delight when he dances, and chuckles
when he says he loves her. It’s easy to forget her friend doesn’t really exist. He’s an advanced robot called IXI-play, with QR scanners for eyes.
It’s those he uses to read the code on the card she holds up to mean ‘love’. And he’s programmed to respond in kind. It’s the clear joy being
felt that makes the IXI-play robot both appealing and a little unnerving. They’re both having fun, but only one of them is actually capable of
experiencing it.
The rush to incorporate technology it into every last facet of our daily lives sometimes seems to only be held back by the speed at which new
products can be developed. And yet amongst the rapid onslaught of innovation and novelty, as the relationships we have with each other and with
our technology evolve and change, questions about what exactly it is we’re trading in for entertainment and convenience persist. Do
smartphones disconnect us from our world? Does Google make us stupid? Does Facebook make us care less? And, in a question only set to
become more pressing, is making friends with robots messing up our kids?
---Humanish becomes the norm
“We redefine ourselves in comparison with robots, as we redefine ourselves in comparison with animals or gods,” says philosopher Rafael
Capurro. [1] Our relationships with the tools around us have historically left an indelible mark on the way we think. As pointed out by Nicholas
Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, the invention of maps abstracted our sense of space, and mechanical
clocks transformed our sense of time. Advances in digital technology do the same thing, but quicker. An experiment at UCLA found people’s
brains effectively rewired themselves – creating new normal pathways – after just the first five hours of surfing the internet. [2]
Today’s digital natives are born into an environment filled with a human ish supporting cast from the get-go. From the ubiquitous Siri – who is
moving into our cars – to Angela the Talking Cat, presences that are almost-human-but-not-quite are everywhere. [3] Angela is a popular cuddly
avatar who was briefly the centre of a viral scare story falsely linking it with an international paedophile ring – raising questions about emerging
parental unease with virtual friends.
We redefine ourselves in comparison with robots, as we redefine ourselves in comparison with animals or gods
Rafael Capurro, philosopher
And they’re becoming more human and ubiquitous all the time. According to a report by World Robotics, sales of robots for personal and
domestic use increased by 35% between 2009 and 2014. The report predicts them to number 14.4 million before 2015. [4] In June 2014, Eugene
Goostman was heralded as the first Artificial Intelligence to pass the Turing test – although the scientific community is divided over the result –
by fooling judges into thinking he was a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy. [5]
Yet the exact effect on the emotional and intellectual development of children, which is almost certain to be profound, is yet unknown. “The
literature suggests that the prefrontal cortex is not yet completed by mid to late 20s or older,” says Dr Larry Rosen, psychologist and author of
iDisorder. “We are talking about impacts on children, teens and young adults.” [6]
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Digital natives feel naturally
comfortable engaging with machines
IXI-play (2014) ©
Robots to love
“People describe others as being ‘robots’ because they have no emotions, no heart,” said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, announcing the
launch of Pepper – the world’s first robot designed to ‘read’ emotions. “For the first time in human history, we're giving a robot a heart.” [7]
While the debate around children and tech continues, a slew of robots are shortcutting their way into people’s hearts by appealing to the hardwired psychological responses to cuteness (i.e. the instinct to nurture vulnerable-looking things with big heads and big eyes.)
The MIT Media Lab tested the power of cuteness directly when they created Boxie. Attempting to build a robot that could roam around alone and
gather information from strangers, they discovered that making it as adorable as possible – and constructing it out of soft, perishable cardboard
rather than hard, sterile plastic – was the key to eliciting engagement and cooperation from strangers, and keeping Boxie safe in public.
People describe others as being ‘robots’ because they have no emotions, no heart. For the first time in human history, we're giving a
robot a heart
Masayoshi Son, SoftBank CEO
Dancing robot the Keepon was originally developed to help autistic children better understand emotions by simplifying the things that make us
identify and empathise with something as human. In Keepon’s case, this is predominantly eye contact, responsiveness and an endearing
repertoire of dance moves. The combination proved so effective at winning over real humans that the Keepon has gone on to enjoy something of
a portfolio career. It’s starred in an indie music video that went viral, racking up over three million views, has spawned its own toy line, and
even been used as the basis of a new mascot for energy giant EDF.
The Romo, which calls itself ‘the world’s first affordable robot’, is partly a toy and learning aid – but it’s predominantly a pet, and relies
heavily on the promise that ‘you can’t help falling in love with him’. It has raised an enormous amount of money on Kickstarter. Pleo,
meanwhile, is a robotic dinosaur who provokes such attachment in its owners that a YouTube video demonstrating how Pleo gets upset when you
hold him by his tail comes with an apology, and a warning for small children to leave the room, in case they find the footage upsetting.
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Are we hard-wired to feel an
emotional response to ‘cute’ things?
MIT (2014) ©
Robots to learn with
The legitimacy of concerns about the psychological impact of growing attached to robots is yet to be established. But the long-standing debate
around the value of passive versus interactive children’s play is throwing an interesting light on the way tech products for children are created.
Seymour Papert, one of the pioneers of Artificial Intelligence, imagined a future of ‘Constructionism’ – active play “where children should be
programming the computer rather than being programmed by it.” [8] The influence of Papert’s vision, alongside growing awareness of the
benefits of getting children away from staring passively at a screen, are driving a trend for products that engage children deeply in their
environment, while incorporating elements of coding and play.
Osmo bills itself as a pioneer in ‘reflective AI’. It allows an iPad to detect and interact with physical toys, like puzzle pieces and clay, in its
immediate environment. It promises all the benefits to motor skills and engagement of tangible play, with the added bonus of an AI who
challenges and teaches. Meanwhile, the cute one-eyed spherical Play-i robots Bo and Yana teach kids to ‘code’ them through a simple,
instinctive interface. Play-i too has found an enormous amount of support on Kickstarter, and won praise for putting children back in the digital
driving seat in their relationship with the machines by demystifying coding and encouraging active learning. And Romo, whose key appeal seems
to be partly in turning a smartphone into a pet for office workers, is winning over parents too by incorporating ‘graphical’ programming, so
children can create their own behaviours for their Romo robot, without knowledge of traditional coding.
It’s easy to form a psychological
attachment to pet-like robots
PLEO (2014) ©
The psychology of technology
What differentiates a human from a robot? The impact of engaging deeply with artificial intelligence on the development of what Larry Rosen
calls ‘Generation C’ – “those born in the new millennium, the newest generations of tech-savvy, media rich, multi-tasking children” – can only
truly be answered once the effects become apparent. But it’s undeniable that the relationship the adults of tomorrow will have with their
technology will be vastly different from our own.
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Various scientists have argued that the first generations of digital natives will actually be wired differently to their predecessors. [9] Dr Larry
Rosen outlines recent research that shows younger children are developing shorter ‘resumption lags’. That’s the time it takes to get back to a
task after breaking concentration. Switching between tabs and screens as habit, they are simply better at multi-tasking, and see concentration
through a totally different lens from their older counterparts. [10]
And as juggling multiple stimuli becomes the norm, and the most natural mode for digital natives, communication that works vividly and with
immediacy gains greater value – which has implications for any form of visual or tactile interface as much as androids and avatars. Marek
Michalowski developed Keepon after asking himself “maybe if there was a very simple robot that physically exhibits minimal social appearance,
it would cut through the noise for [autistic] children.” [11] Like Keepon, gestures like emojis, reaction GIFs and Facebook stickers pack
emotionally dense information into a simple, visual unit. They’re able to ‘cut through the noise’ of a busy digital environment and head straight
to an emotional response. And they’re spreading rapidly through the social web.
Is it healthy to emotionally
engage with an artificially-intelligent machine?
Romo (2014) ©
Insights and opportunities
Anthropomorphism is as powerful as ever. And beyond toys, robots and internet memes, it’s a force that can be broken down into the most
minimal elements and used as a tool for profound engagement and empathy – as ‘cute’ emerges as the quickest route to emotional connection.
And it’s often at its most potent when simplicity combines with relative emotional complexity. Robots than can beat Gary Kasparov at chess
may be intellectually interesting, but it’s a phone on wheels with a face that really gets people excited.
As digital natives grow up in an environment where responsive, attentive and even empathetic technology becomes more and more the norm,
expectation of these qualities in interfaces will become standard. The team working on Boxie at MIT Media Labs hopes that “this type of
interaction [they’ve] studied will lead to simpler systems that may be more symbiotic with people instead of just trying to be a cold system
without much interaction.” [12]
There is already abundant evidence that high exposure to television is harmful for young children, so we don't need to think far
ahead to identify potential problems
Dr Larry Rosen, psychologist and author
But as appealing as almost-human robots and playmates are right now, concerns around their impact on developing minds is only set to grow –
and brands looking to sell tech products for children are likely to be mindful of the desire for both reassurance and added educational and
developmental value when marketing artificial intelligence as toys.
“There is already abundant evidence that high exposure to television is harmful for young children, so we don't need to think far ahead to
identify potential problems,” says Rosen. “Current technology is already being used in problematic ways. New risks will surely arise, but we
also should first handle existing technology better than we do, while being mindful of and preparing for what's around the corner.”
Toys now provide not just play but endless distraction, attention, company, and even love. With concerns about the effects of being offered so
much by technology are sure to grow, the desire to see concentration, imagination and experimentation reverse-engineered into products will
become more pressing. Parents will only be happy to hand over their kids to robots if they can be certain the robot is giving something back.
Susie Hogarth is a writer and artist investigating popular culture and narrative. She is the author of Hogarth's Very Large Handbook of
Celebrity, published by The Zidane Press, has illustrated several non-fiction books, and was previously a regular contributor to the Erotic
Review.
Related behaviours
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Blended Reality: Disappearing distinctions between online and offline.
Self and System: Living in an internet of things.
Sources
1. ‘Ethics and Robotics’ , Capurro (2014)
2. ‘Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains’ , Wired (May 2010)
3. ‘Will Apple’s quest for dashboard dominance change in-car tech for the better?’ , Digital Trends (August 2013)
4. ‘Creating “companions” for children: the ethics of designing esthetic features for robots’ , Springer Link (February 2014)
5. ‘Computer AI passes Turing test in 'world first'’ , BBC (June 2014)
6. Interview with Dr Larry Rosen conducted by author
7. ‘Japanese 'robot with a heart' will care for the elderly and children’ , The Independent (June 2014)
8. ‘Seymour Papert’s Legacy: Thinking About Learning, and Learning About Thinking’ , Stanford University (2014)
9. ‘How Technology is Changing the Way Children Think and Focus’ , Psychology Today (December 2012)
10. ‘Current research’ , Dr Larry Rosen (2014)
11. ‘This Cute Robot Helps Children With Autism Socialize’ , Mashable (May 2012)
12. ‘Boxie: The Chatterbox Bot’ , Robot Companions Blog (February 2012)
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