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Most kids know it's wrong to shout at or hit someone. But what if that someone is Alexa — an AI (Artificial Intelligence人工智能) speaker, or Roomba — a robot cleaner?

A new study by Teresa Flanagan, a developmental psychologist from Duke University, found that kids aged four to eleven felt neither Roomba nor Alexa should be shouted at or attacked. However, that feeling weakened as kids grew into their teens.

Flanagan was inspired to do the research after watching some movies about robots. "In those movies, we see adults interacting with robots in terrible ways, " said Flanagan. "But how would kids interact with them?"

Flanagan invited 127 children aged four to eleven to take part in the study. The kids were asked to watch a video of the two devices(设备)and then answer a few questions, like whether it was wrong to attack AI devices and how smart and sensitive they thought Alexa was compared to Roomba. Flanagan studied the survey data and found something encouraging.

Overall, kids decided that both Alexa and Roomba, unlike humans, probably weren't ticklish (怕痒) and wouldn't feel pain when they got hit. However, they gave Alexa, but not Roomba, high marks for mental and emotional abilities, such as being able to think or getting upset when someone was mean to it.

"Young children think Alexa, even without a body, has emotions and a mind, " Flanagan said. "But they don't think Roomba does — maybe that has something to do with Alexa's ability to have verbal (语音的)communication. "

Although they believed the two intelligent devices had different abilities, children across all ages agreed it was wrong to hit or shout at the machines. However, the older kids got, the more they reported it would be more acceptable to attack devices.

The findings offer new ideas about the changing relationship between children and intelligent devices and raise important questions about how we are supposed to treat them in general and as parents. Should adults, for example, model good behavior for their kids by thanking AI devices for their help?

For now, Flanagan is trying to understand why children think it is wrong to attack intelligent devices.

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北京市海淀区2023年中考二模英语试卷

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