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Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

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Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#11

Post by ddingus »

Tagbert wrote: post #6
quacked wrote: post #2

I'm surprised no one has commented. Personally I think this is very troubling. Have you ever heard of "parasocial relationships"?

She’s 5. Did you never write a letter to Santa? Or at least wait up to see if Santa came on Christmas Eve?

Text is hard. I deliberately did not exclaim because I am not worried at this moment, just intrigued.

And I thought others may be as well.

You are right: No panic warranted or indicated just yet. ;D

And yeah. I was that kid. Did a ton of crazy things.

Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#12

Post by girvo »

quacked wrote: post #2

I'm surprised no one has commented. Personally I think this is very troubling. Have you ever heard of "parasocial relationships"?

You should’ve seen how I talked to my pet fish and my brother’s cockatiel, and the latter even “talked” back, when I was around that age. Or my stuffed toys, even. As I got older I anthropomorphised them less (treated them less like imaginary people in a different form), so I don’t know if I’d be worried about it myself. Interesting discussion point though!

Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#13

Post by ddingus »

fourseventy wrote: post #4

Very interesting story, thanks for sharing. Perhaps in a few decades we won't be able to convince ourselves that our digital agents aren't real people either.

Maybe!

Seeing this play out does give one reason to imagine, think about it all.

I know I would love to have one sufficiently complex to train, have inside jokes with, etc...

At no time would it be real, unless we actually do get AI. That is a different conversation!

Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#14

Post by ddingus »

girvo wrote: post #12
quacked wrote: post #2

I'm surprised no one has commented. Personally I think this is very troubling. Have you ever heard of "parasocial relationships"?

You should’ve seen how I talked to my pet fish and my brother’s cockatiel, and the latter even “talked” back, when I was around that age. Or my stuffed toys, even. As I got older I anthropomorphised them less (treated them less like imaginary people in a different form), so I don’t know if I’d be worried about it myself. Interesting discussion point though!

Same. I still do that playfully even now.

Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#18

Post by hunter-2 »

My son is 22 months old and is in an extremely serious relationship with our Roomba. His entire day revolves around when she gets to eat food (that is, sucking in dirt around the house), and when she goes to sleep. So much so that when he once fell and got hurt, the first 'person' he called out was Roomba.

It's fascinating how different they view things compared to us.

Re: Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person

#20

Post by willcipriano »

My experience suggests you may be on to something. I have a Echo and a two year old, I have it use the "Computer" wake word. Last weekend she pointed at the Echo then my desktop and proclaimed "Computer. Computer!" I told her she was right, they are the same sort of thing and we walked around the house pointing out the other things that are computers, like her moms phone, Nintendo Switch and Nvidia Shield. She seems pretty clear that they aren't living things and just machines like the car or a fridge.
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