As children get older, they can ask or answer questions.
Toy giant Mattel recently announced the birth of Aristotle, a home baby monitor launching this summer that “comforts, teaches and entertains” using AI from Microsoft. With an estimated 25 million voice assistants expected to sell this year at $40 to $180 - up from 1.7 million in 2015 - there are even ramifications for the diaper crowd. “And how does that subsequently affect family dynamics and social interactions with other people?” “How they react and treat this nonhuman entity is, to me, the biggest question,” said Sandra Calvert, a Georgetown University psychologist and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center. But psychologists, technologists and linguists are only beginning to ponder the possible perils of surrounding kids with artificial intelligence, particularly as they traverse important stages of social and language development.Īsher Labovich, 13, right, and his 10-year-old sister, Emerson, mess around with the family’s Alexa, an Amazon Echo voice assistant, while their mom, Laura Labovich, watches in Bethesda, Md. Caregivers to the elderly say the devices help with dementia, reminding users what day it is or when to take medicine.įor children, the potential for transformative interactions are just as dramatic - at home and in classrooms. The disabled are using voice assistants to control their homes, order groceries and listen to books.
In just two years, the promise of the technology has already exceeded the marketing come-ons. Many parents have been startled and intrigued by the way these disembodied, know-it-all voices - Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft’s Cortana - are impacting their kids’ behavior, making them more curious but also, at times, far less polite.
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As millions of American families buy robotic voice assistants to turn off lights, order pizzas and fetch movie times, children are eagerly co-opting the gadgets to settle dinner table disputes, answer homework questions and entertain friends at sleepover parties.