Sign up for Meridianâs Free Newsletter, please CLICK HERE
Is the way we bark out orders to digital assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant making us less polite? Prompted by growing concerns, two BYU information systems researchers decided to ask.
âHey Siri, is the way we talk to you making humans less polite?â
OK, OK, they didnât ask Siri. Or Alexa. Instead they asked 274 people, and after surveying and observing those people, they found some good news: Artificially-intelligent digital assistants are not making adult humans ruder to other humans. Yet.
âWorried parents and news outlets alike have fretted about how the personification of digital assistants affects our politeness, yet we have found little reason to worry about adults becoming ruder as a result of ordering around Siri or Alexa,â said James Gaskin, associate professor of information systems at BYU. âIn other words, there is no need for adults to say âpleaseâ and âthank youâ when using a digital assistant.â
Gaskin and lead author Nathan Burton, actually expected to find the opposite â that the way people treat AIs would make a difference in their life and interpersonal interactions. According to their assessment, digital assistants in their current form are not personified enough by adult users to affect human-to-human interactions.
But that may not be the case with children. Parental concerns have already prompted both Google and Amazon to make adjustments to their digital assistants, with both now offering features that thank and compliment children when they make requests politely.
Gaskin and Burton did not study children, but assessed young adults, who generally have formed their behavioral habits. The researchers believes that if they repeated the study with kids, they would find different results.
They also say that as artificial intelligence becomes more anthropomorphic in form, such as the new Vector Robot â which has expressive eyes, a moving head and arm-like parts â the effects on human interactions will increase because people will be more likely to perceive the robots as having and understanding emotion.
âThe Vector Robot appears to do a good job of embodying a digital assistant in a way that is easily personifiable,â Burton said. âIf we did the same type of study using a Vector Robot, I believe we would have found a much stronger effect on human interactions.”
The research is being presented this week at the Americas Conference on Information Systems.
CCAugust 20, 2019
Has anyone done any research to find out why so many of the millennial generation are so self-centered and rude? It shocks me to see the change for worse in manners and courtesies with so many younger people.
HalAugust 19, 2019
This article made me think of my own interaction with Siri - I typically thank "her" for her help - if nothing else, to see what response I get which usually brings a smile to my face. One thing is certain, I've found that the more grateful I am - to my family, coworkers, neighbors, ward members, and - especially - Heavenly Father, the more consideration / cooperation / blessings I receive in response. I.e. the more gratitude I show, the more people are willing to help me.