Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot 'It'

As a new generation grows up surrounded by artificial intelligence,
researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid
confusion about robots' role

By Sue Shellenbarger

The Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-kids-should-call-the-robot-it-11566811801

Updated Aug. 26, 2019 12:25 pm ET

If you want your preschooler to grow up with a healthy attitude toward
artificial intelligence, here's a tip: Don't call that cute talking
robot "he" or "she."

Call the robot "it."

Today's small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up
with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a
booming education-tech industry can speed children's learning, but
they also can be confusing to them, research shows. Many children
think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical
powers.

The long-term consequences of growing up surrounded by AI-driven
devices won't be clear for a while. But an expanding body of research
is lending new impetus to efforts to expand technology education
beyond learning to code, to understanding how AI works. Children need
help drawing boundaries between themselves and the technology, and
gaining confidence in their own ability to control and master it,
researchers say.

AI is already causing plenty of jitters among adults, says Craig Le
Clair, a principal analyst with Forrester and author of a new book on
workforce automation. Many workers are worried about programming
AI-driven equipment on the job, or fear AI will eliminate their
positions altogether. "Machinists are having nervous breakdowns," he
says. "We need to teach children the attitude that, 'I can collaborate
and work with machines. I'm not threatened by them,' " he says. "And
that education has to begin in preschool."

Preschoolers can understand more about AI than you think. Researchers
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding some surprising
successes teaching AI to children as young as age 4, helping them
program robots to learn from patterns or features in data. Parents,
too, can help instill a healthy self-confidence in youngsters by
tweaking their own language and behavior, encouraging children to take
apart AI-driven gadgets, and talking with them about where the devices
get their intelligence.

Small children need help understanding the workings of a robot. "They
know robots aren't alive and don't eat, sleep, breathe or reproduce,
but at the same time they attribute to them the ability to think and
have emotions and sensory abilities," says Jennifer Jipson, a
professor of psychology and child development at California
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Children learn readily from likable robots that follow their gaze and
respond to what they're saying, studies show. Interacting with a robot
that appears to show curiosity can spark a child's inquisitiveness and
eagerness to learn.

Youngsters also pick up conversational cues from robots. One child in
a 2017 University of Washington study started mimicking the repetitive
speech of a robotic dinosaur when asked by her father at home to do
something she didn't want to do, saying "I didn't get that," according
to the research.

Children tend to overestimate the capacity of a robot, with about a
fourth of 4-to-10-year-olds in a 2018 study saying Cozmo, a small toy
robotic vehicle with an expressive face, was better at solving a maze
than they were.

A talking doll was able to persuade some children to change their
answers to questions about how to treat peers, saying it's OK to tease
another child, according to a 2018 study led by MIT researcher Randi
Williams with Cynthia Breazeal, founder and director of the personal
robots group at MIT's Media Lab. It wasn't clear whether the children
actually believed it was OK or were just testing the doll.

Children can become emotionally attached to robots. Most children ages
9 through 15 who interacted with a humanoid robot for 15 minutes said
later they might go to it for comfort if they were feeling sad or
lonely, and believed the robot could be their friend, according to a
2012 study in Developmental Psychology.

All that is fertile ground for teaching. Researchers at MIT have
developed an AI curriculum called PopBots that guides children as
young as 4 to teach a robot to play the game Rock, Paper, Scissors; to
divide foods into healthy and unhealthy groups; and to remix melodies
to create new strains of music. The children answered many questions
correctly on a test afterward and were able to discuss AI concepts,
Dr. Breazeal says.

"Before we started this work, we were told point-blank, 'You can't
start teaching kids AI until high school,' " Dr. Breazeal says. She
was surprised that the preschoolers were able to grasp the concepts as
well as they did.

"When we asked them who's smarter, the children could say, 'The robot
can beat me in Rock Paper Scissors—but I programmed it to do that, so
I'm actually smarter,' " says Dr. Breazeal, who is heading development
of an AI curriculum for students from kindergarten through high
school.

Parents can help by setting boundaries at home, guarding against toys
that claim to be a child's best friend or tell them what to wear,
Dr. Breazeal says. Children tend to internalize parents' attitudes
about technology by age 8, research shows.

Dr. Jipson at Cal Poly advises parents to help their children design,
program or build the AI devices they use. "Help children figure out
that they can control these tools—that we're the ones who created that
ability, and we can also make the best use of it," she says. Invite
them to question the credibility of the information generated by
AI-powered tools, she says. "They need to know that there's the
potential for error or, unfortunately, for deliberate manipulation."

And watch your language. Dr. Jipson says has made a point with her two
daughters, now 10 and 13, of calling robots "it" rather than "he" or
"she."

Children delight in controlling the devices when given a chance. Niko
Merritt, a mother of four in Newport, R.I., tries to instill a
fearless attitude in her children, encouraging them to experiment and
have fun programming AI-propelled devices. Her 6-year-old daughter
Gianna enjoyed playing with an educational robot called Dash at an
after-school program offered by FabNewport, a nonprofit fabrication
lab, she says. Gianna was excited to see that she could program the
robot to act on her commands and do what she wanted it to do,
Ms. Merritt says.

"She has plans to take over the world," Ms. Merritt says, "and she
plans to use a robot to help."

How to Raise an AI-Savvy Child

* Use the pronoun "it" when referring to a robot.

* Display a positive attitude toward the beneficial effects of AI.

* Encourage your child to explore how robots are built.

* Explain that humans are the source of AI-driven devices'
  intelligence.

* Guard against AI-propelled toys that presume too much, such as
  claiming to be your child's best friend.

* Invite children to consider the ethics of AI design, such as how a
  bot should behave after winning a game.

* Encourage skepticism about information received from smart toys and
  devices.