If you don’t have a smart speaker in your home now, there’s a high chance you will soon. In the United States alone, penetration rose from 0.5% of households in 2014 to 60% in 2022. But won’t someone think of the children? In an opinion piece published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal last year, academics posited that voice-controlled smart devices could have “long-term consequences on empathy, compassion and critical thinking among children, ” in part because AI assistants don’t require children to ask politely for what they want. No one wants a generation of tyrants who are rude to those who are close to them (and even worse to those who aren’t), and tech firms have already taken This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Eight Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 42 Computed Emotion On the rise of chatbot therapy. Arts & Culture Issue 35 Ai-Da Meet Ai-Da. She’s a promising young artist who’s earned a million dollars in her first year of selling. She’s also a robot. Arts & Culture Issue 32 Smaller Talk Tips for conversing with children. Arts & Culture Issue 31 How to Gossip A proactive approach to idle talk. Arts & Culture Issue 51 Emily Gernild The Danish painter breathing new life into an old medium. Arts & Culture Food Issue 51 Imogen Kwok The artist takes food styling quite literally, creating accessories out of fruits and vegetables.
Arts & Culture Issue 35 Ai-Da Meet Ai-Da. She’s a promising young artist who’s earned a million dollars in her first year of selling. She’s also a robot.
Arts & Culture Food Issue 51 Imogen Kwok The artist takes food styling quite literally, creating accessories out of fruits and vegetables.
