Children easily swayed by what AI robots tell them to think

CHILDREN can be easily swayed into changing their opinions by robots, according to research which raises new questions over the ethics of artificial intelligence.

In a series of tests by academics at the University of Plymouth, children aged between seven and nine were more likely to give the same responses as their robot companions, even when it was clear that suggestions made by the robots were wrong.

“What our results show is that adults do not conform to what the robots are saying. But when we did the experiment with children, they did,” said Tony Belpaeme, a professor in robotics at Plymouth.

With children now having far more interaction with digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, the results raise concerns that young people could be subject to pressure from machines. “It shows children can perhaps have more of an affinity with robots than adults, which does pose the question: what if robots were to suggest, for example, what products to buy or what to think?” asked Prof Belpaeme.

The research compared how adults and children behaved in a research test known as the Asch paradigm. This was first developed in the Fifties and involves people picking out lines that have the same length when shown a group of lines on a screen.

When alone, people almost always get the answer right. However, when doing the experiment in groups, they tend to follow what others are saying.

When children were alone in the room while conducting the task, they scored 87pc on the test. However, when the robots were there to influence their decisions, the score fell to 75pc. Of the wrong answers, 74pc matched those of the robot.

The researchers said a debate needs to take place about protective measures designed to reduce the risk to children during interactions with robots.

The study follows research in June which found children were starting to behave like robots.