Kids find the Alexa smart voice assistant smarter and more emotional than Roomba. In this respect informs American Duke University.
Teresa Flanagan and her colleagues selected 127 children aged 4 to 11 who visited the science and technology museum with their families. The kids watched a 20-second video about the two devices — Amazon’s Alexa smart voice assistant (Yandex’s Alice is considered its Russian counterpart) and the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, which can communicate with its owner by voice. After watching the video, the children filled out a short questionnaire.
Overall, the kids agreed that both Alexa and Roomba were ticklish and wouldn’t feel pain when pinched, as they couldn’t feel human. Children also found Alexa to be more intelligent than Roomba, capable of feeling emotions and being offended.
“While they don’t have bodies, toddlers think Alexa has emotions and a mind,” the scientists say.
Despite this difference, the children felt that both of these machines deserved “humane” treatment and should not be yelled at. Moreover, as the children got older, they found verbal attacks on the robot more normal.