A study from the University of Cambridge in the UK pointed out that long-term use of artificial intelligence AI voice assistants may hinder children's thinking development and social skills.
In recent years, many parents will purchase artificial intelligence -powered voice assistants as home devices, and even let them participate in family education . Data from a UK survey of 1,200 children aged 6-11 showed that some children talk to AI voice assistants even more frequently than they talk to elders: children use these devices every day, compared to the conversations they have with their grandparents every 10 days. One-third of the children said they would rather ask the machine than the parents when they encountered problems.
According to a study published in the UK's "Childhood Disease Archives", at a critical stage in social and educational development, children's thinking will be affected for a long time when they are exposed to and over-reliance on AI voice assistants from an early age. In addition to suppressing their critical thinking skills, the continuous interaction with machines also interferes with their ability to empathize and show compassion.
↑ The communication between voice assistants and children has caused researchers to worry
HD Researchers Anania Arora and Anmore Arora said that such electronic devices may affect children's thinking development and intelligence. "When children ask questions to machines, they only receive a clear and concise answer, but this runs contrary to the way children learn." In traditional learning, children need to collect fragmented information around a network of knowledge, rather than randomly absorbing answers that are not connected and have no clear explanation of the ins and outs. Anmore believes: "Easy to get answers may cause children not to search for information themselves - and this is the process they need to learn critical thinking and logical reasoning."
At the same time, AI voice assistants may also be detrimental to children to develop empathy and compassion. "In normal interpersonal communication, if children behave improperly, they usually receive constructive feedback, which is beyond the capabilities of artificial intelligence devices. In other words, voice assistants do not correct children's rude language and behavior when human-computer conversations. And people and machines often do not show respect or consideration when they talk to machines." A poll found that nearly three-quarters admit that they did not say "please" or "thank you" when they talk to AI voice assistants.
The UK National Health Service (NHS) psychiatrist Max Pemberton believes that Arora's point of view is correct. He believes: "Man will be accustomed to yelling at people in real life in the future. This is an effect that will definitely happen."
↑ Dr. Max Pemberton
Many researchers point out that interaction with the real world and face-to-face interpersonal interactions in childhood profoundly affect people's brain development and personality formation. It has been reported before that parents of tech elite families in Silicon Valley in the United States are more concerned about the impact of electronic devices on their children than ordinary middle-class or low-income parents, and pay more attention to interpersonal and realistic interactions.
However, not everyone thinks so. According to Amy Auburn, an experimental psychologist at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study, the paper may exaggerate the extent of risk. "This argument is mainly based on news reports and anecdotal evidence... Scientifically speaking, people know very little about the impact of AI voice assistants on children... The impact of AI voice assistants may be diverse and mixed, and it depends very much on how children use them."
Red Star News reporter Fan Xu Intern Deng Shuyi
Editor Ren Zhijiang Editor Xiao Ziqi
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