"In 2018, a Lynn, Massachusetts mom named Lauren Johnson, with a then six-year-old child named Alexa, created a website, Alexa is a human. On it, she says, "Imagine your child is being bullied, but you can't help them. Imagine if the bullying continues from school, to home, to the car, and to stores, and you can't find a safe place. Imagine it evolves into complete strangers continually bullying your child in public. Just imagine. We don't have to.""
"Little Massachusetts Alexa isn't alone. A 2021 Washington Post article by Alexa Juliana Ard (she goes mostly by Juliana now), spotlighted how people named Alexa are experiencing insults, degrading comments, being treated as servants, and even being forced to change their names by their employers so as not to interfere with Alexa devices in their offices. Normalization of command Not only are people treating human Alexas like robots, they're learning what scientists call "normalization of command.""
"Also: 10 ChatGPT prompt tricks I use - to get the best results, faster Researchers at the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge report that interacting with AI voice assistants like Alexa during early childhood development provides permission for a lack of politeness and empathy erosion, where children get used to giving orders. In other words, as tech investor Hunter Walk described it, "Amazon Echo is magical. It's also turning my kid into an asshole.""
A Massachusetts mother created a website after her daughter Alexa experienced public harassment tied to the Alexa device name. People with the name Alexa report insults, degrading treatment, and workplace pressures to change their names to avoid conflicts with devices. Researchers at Cambridge warn that interacting with AI voice assistants during early childhood can provide permission for a lack of politeness and lead to empathy erosion as children get used to issuing orders. Public commentary notes that the machine status of assistants makes rudeness feel acceptable, but that normalization of command carries broader social and developmental consequences.
Read at ZDNET
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]