The impact of AI assistants: Are they adopting your child?

Reflections of a “Barefoot” Headmaster: Oh, My boy! by Roland Rudd, headmaster of St Andrew’s School Bloemfontein:

When I think back to when I was younger, I can’t help but think life was a lot simpler. This is the sentiment repeated to me by my parents, as my daughter reminds me, when I say this to her. She is quick to tell me, that dinosaurs were also around when I was younger… Am I that old? Perhaps, because a colleague had a 40th birthday, and thought to myself, am I older than people celebrating their 40th birthdays…

So let this ‘Dino Rider’ share some thoughts. The first cell phone I came into contact with was the brick sized, and probably equal in weight as well, Sony Ericsson of my father. Yes, he was a ‘trendsetter’ in terms of technology, introducing our family to the first phone, where no wires were needed to speak to the other. Mind you, reception on this device, despite an extendable pull-out Arial, was not great. In fact, the old school Telkom line telephone was much more reliable.

Things kind of ‘blurred’ from there and started snowballing… Role on the Nokia’s and Motorola’s, monochrome to colour screens, classic cell ringtones to polyphonic ringtones, and the invention of the clam/flip phones. Great excitement as cell phones came to form a part of our appendages. Specialized phones like the gaming or business version rolled out. It was also somewhere at this time, that the cell phone became a status symbol, with people ‘competing’ as to who had the best and the latest on the market.

So yes, I suppose it feels to my daughter that I was around when the caveman phased out using smoke signals to communicate and started using the Nokia 5110. This was my first phone, a second-hand phone passed down to me by my folks. I could make a call, send a sms (which cost almost R1 back then), and play games like Snake. It was revolutionary to have a device that had a camera, calculator, calendar, contact list, and various Apps in their infancy. Do you recall when the camera cell phones came out with, overtook the handheld digital camera that was once the mainstay of any family vacation?

I wonder, if the adults could have it again, knowing what they know now, whether they would have embraced the cell phone revolution the way they did. The first time I had access to the internet was through a ‘dodgy’ telephone dial up method on my father’s desktop. Limited browsing, and access to the initial websites, allowed me to access the WWF (Wrestling) and Arsenal online. This absorbed me for hours, and I was blown away at this unprecedented access to information – it was exciting and empowering. The internet was a lot different to what we know now. The basics of social media took the form of chat rooms – the first time you could essentially communicate with persons instantaneously around the world. Enter MMS and MIXIT etc on the cell phones, bringing the start of social platforms right to the palm of your hand.

The roll out of the Blackberry device, and unlimited access to this thing called DATA and BBM (messaging), pushed the digital revolution forward and opened up the World Wide Web like never before – for good and bad… I don’t want to sound like a ‘prophet of doom’, but I am properly concerned about the dangers our children face at an unprecedented level – the threat being already in your house.

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When I was younger, you heard little to nothing of hacking, phishing, extortion, cyber-bullying or other forms of E-crime – perhaps I was just naive. Not only does your child now have a device with more technology in it than was used to send the first rocket to the moon, they are exposed to a plethora of dangers and unsuitable content and material – especially if not managed correctly. When I was younger, access to naughty pictures were limited to shelves in the corner café. Then with the invention of the internet and other digital sources, these pictures were brought to our devices. Naughty pictures being shared between willing, and real persons (children and adults), as scandalous as it seems, is worryingly commonplace – in and amongst online extortion.

With the invention of AI, we have taken another leap forward. Your child is most likely already acquainted with Gemini, Siri, Alexa and Bixby – these are digital ‘assistants’. Don’t know them? You should! In many ways they are fast becoming your child’s primary companion, and caretaker. You know what that means for you? These assistants don’t get angry, they are not moody or tired, they know everything and can instantaneously do a variety of tasks – and yes, they are more knowledgeable than even us teachers and you parents. There is a very dangerous fine line being walked here. Under our noses, these assistants are ‘adopting’ our children. Perhaps your child will introduce you to his AI girlfriend. You will be surprised – she is 10/10, exactly to his liking, never says no, always available and will send pictures whenever he asks. Imagine how distorted this image is of a relationship with a real person. See what I am getting at?

We have a serious problem. It’s not some distant reality. These are our children’s every day lived reality. If we are not awake to these ‘threats’, AI will quickly move to replace us as parents. Alternatively, we should not be surprised when our sons arrive to introduce us to their AI girlfriends and our future daughters in law.

As always, it is my hope that you will do as the Prophet Micah requires; “Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly with God”.