[Photograph of Amazon Echo and Google Nest devices}. 2022, June 28. https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-echo-vs-google-home-which-smart-speaker-is-best
In reading about new technologies and relationships between children and technology, I’m reminded of some of my favorite science fiction tales. Aside from a few notable exceptions, many science fiction novels and movies give warnings of the perils of new technologies or unchecked innovation, and especially the perils of artificial intelligence. How many times have we see stories about robots turning on humans? We are fed the same message over and over: do not trust artificial intelligence. However, Isaac Asimov’s stories, while giving some warnings, often cast technology, and AI specifically, in a positive light. In his stories, it is often the humans who cause the major issues and scrabble for power, not the robots.
I, Robot is one of my favorite novels. In the novel, Asimov explores potential issues related to artificial intelligence (2020). The frame of the story is that a young journalist is interviewing a famous, elderly robopsychologist (in other words, a psychologist who works with AI) who recounts several important memories from her career. In each memory she is confronting an issue with robots and solving the problem. Because of this structure, the novel almost feels more like a collection of short stories. In one of these stories, called “Robbie,” a mother becomes increasingly concerned about her little girl’s close relationship with her caretaker-robot, Robbie (Asimov, 2020, pp. 1-23). The mother has a deep distrust of AI, and when she feel the child and robot are simply too closely bonded she takes Robbie away from the girl, who pines heartbreakingly for her best friend. Without giving too much away about the rest of story, the family eventually crosses paths with Robbie again, who is able to demonstrate his goodness and the ways his presence benefits the little girl.
When reading Samantha Murphy Kelly’s article “Growing up with Alexa…,” (2018) I couldn’t help but think of Robbie, or think of my daughter as a toddler squawking, “Ay Guggle” to try to get Google’s attention. Once my daughter learned to pronounce it properly and got a response from my husband’s phone, she absolutely loved asking questions or asking it for a joke. As a parent, I am wary of the effects of too much technology on the development of my child, just as Kelly expresses in her article. However, I also understand that this new generation will grow and live with technology that I probably haven’t even daydreamed about yet; there is much for them to learn, and there is no time like the present. Encouraging positive and healthy relationships with technology seems like an important step in today’s world. I am encouraged by the idea that children view their devices as things that deserve similar treatment to that given to fellow humans (Kelly, 2018). There is something especially lovely about children’s ability to approach all kinds of different things with respect and openness.
At this point, she said, there isn’t enough research to offer parents guidelines when it comes to kids and Alexa,” (Kelly, 2018).
In his article about AI in libraries, Jason Giffney examines the promise of AI, as well as potential privacy issues to consider (2019). AI is already incredibly useful for customizing and expediting processes on our personal devices; many people experience this daily with their smart phones or home devices. Unfortunately, this kind of convenience is a double-edged sword, in that it often leaves people open to privacy breaches they aren’t even aware of. Luckily, there are some options that can help to mitigate these issues, including saving and analyzing information on devices, rather than uploading people’s information to a database somewhere so it can be analyzed elsewhere. In other words, stay local! Giffney suggests that libraries will begin incorporating more and more AI in the next few years, which will absolutely benefit our patrons. He also suggests, however, that librarians closely examine our options and choose programs that protect our patrons’ privacy. As a parent and as a school librarian, protecting kids’ privacy is of the utmost importance.
It is exciting to read about advancing technologies that I will be able to incorporate and offer to my students, and even more exciting to consider the long-term possibilities that today’s young children will embrace and utilize decades down the road. While there are certainly issues to be aware of and to work around, overall, the information about these technologies is generally hopeful and positive. Though people may express concerns about the idea of AI, many may not realize they already use and enjoy some forms of AI. Though AI and other new technologies can feel strange at times, and perhaps we are part of an ongoing experiment in a lot of ways, it very much feels like an early chapter in a science fiction novel.
References
Asimov, I. (2020). I, Robot (Del Rey trade paperback edition. ed.). Del Rey.
Griffey, J. (2019, March 1). AI and machine learning: The challenges of artificial intelligence in libraries. American Libraries. Retrieved December 21, 2022, from https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/03/01/ai-machine-learning-libraries/
Kelly, S. M. (2018, October 16). Growing up with Alexa: A child’s relationship with Amazon’s voice assistant. CNN Business. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/tech/alexa-child-development/index.html
