Your Web News in One Place

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

Sign up for GreenGeeks web hosting
August 30, 2019 11:22 pm

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

As a new generation grows up surrounded by AI, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots' role. From a report: 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.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/1sw3xKte9vk/why-we-should-teach-kids-to-call-the-robot-it

Share this article:    Share on Facebook
View Full Article

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..

More About this Source Visit Slashdot