Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Virtual infant BabyX prompts question: how do we feel about AI that looks so much like us?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

While educators persist in the belief that AI can't create relationships with us, AI's begin to forge relationships with us. This we see the example of 'BabyX'. Right now we sense a feeling of unease, known as an 'uncanny valley', because the AI's responses aren't quite right. But, "Walters suspects the feeling of uncanny valley will disappear over time as people grow more accustomed to interacting with humanoid robots and simulations." The key issue here, though, is not whether we will form attachments with these AIs. We will. It will be the question of whether these AIs will be benign. I saw on CBC today (no link yet) a story about a doll that talks with children and sends the data back to its manufacturers. This is data that can be (and therefore will) be misused. 

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 07:06 a.m.

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