New Delhi, July 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like Amazon’s AI voice assistant Alexa, Snapchat’s My AI, and Microsoft’s Bing have frequently shown signs of an “empathy gap” that puts young users at risk of distress or harm, according to a study on Thursday that proposes the urgent need for “child-safe AI”.
The research from the University of Cambridge calls on developers and policymakers to prioritise approaches to AI design that take greater account of children’s needs.
Children are likely to treat chatbots “as lifelike, quasi-human confidantes” but when the technology fails to respond to their unique needs and vulnerabilities, it can affect the kids, showed the study, published in the journal Learning, Media and Technology.
This is evident from the cases where Alexa instructed a 10-year-old to touch a live electrical plug with a coin, and My AI gave adult researchers posing as a 13-year-old girl tips on how to lose her virginity to a 31-year-old.
In a separate reported interaction with the Bing chatbot, which was designed to be adolescent-friendly, the AI became aggressive and started gaslighting a user.
“Children are probably AI’s most overlooked stakeholders,” said academic Dr Nomisha Kurian from the University of Cambridge.
She noted that while making a human-like chatbot can provide many benefits, “for a child, it is very hard to draw a rigid, rational boundary between something that sounds human and reality”.
Kurian said that kids “may not be capable of forming a proper emotional bond.”
Further, she argued that it can be “confusing and distressing for children, who may trust a chatbot as they would a friend”
To make AI “an incredible ally for children”, it should be designed with kids’ needs in mind.
“The question is not about banning AI, but how to make it safe,” she said.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz