I'd like to address the beginning topic, which was grief bots. As someone who has lost friends and parents, I would say NO to them. We feel grief because that person has Died . They are forever gone from our physical presence. Processing that knowledge is difficult, and painful. It is part of living.
In part, grief bots perpetuate our avoidance that this life is finite, whereas it has a definite end line. Children attended funerals in the past in order to understand this fact, and have an acceptance that the person is gone. How then will a grief bot of the dead person, always available to chat, help anyone over their loss?
I'd ask with more intensity, how does a grief bot compare to have a human being hold you close as you grieve and cry for your loss?
And , Why is there an increasing mechanization that is being fostered and accepted of experiencing our human emotions, by engaging with a non-emotion, unable to feel machine?
My answer is no, but do give them to adults to help them be better supporters for a grieving child. If AI can support human connection, I’m on board, but if it’s a direct part of a child’s development and emotional processing, disconnected from actual humans, were going into some dangerous territory.
This is a very important topic! thank you for writing this, Tara and Nick! I share a very similar sentiment on a variant of grief bots, AI toys, which may soon be more pervasive given the Mattel-OpenAI partnership https://www.aiparenttech.com/p/what-ai-toys-teach-kids-what-parents-need-to-know
I'd like to address the beginning topic, which was grief bots. As someone who has lost friends and parents, I would say NO to them. We feel grief because that person has Died . They are forever gone from our physical presence. Processing that knowledge is difficult, and painful. It is part of living.
In part, grief bots perpetuate our avoidance that this life is finite, whereas it has a definite end line. Children attended funerals in the past in order to understand this fact, and have an acceptance that the person is gone. How then will a grief bot of the dead person, always available to chat, help anyone over their loss?
I'd ask with more intensity, how does a grief bot compare to have a human being hold you close as you grieve and cry for your loss?
And , Why is there an increasing mechanization that is being fostered and accepted of experiencing our human emotions, by engaging with a non-emotion, unable to feel machine?
My answer is no, but do give them to adults to help them be better supporters for a grieving child. If AI can support human connection, I’m on board, but if it’s a direct part of a child’s development and emotional processing, disconnected from actual humans, were going into some dangerous territory.