Designing Conversational Assistants to Reduce Gender Bias
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Moray House School of Education
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Judy Robertson (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Andries V
(2023)
Alexa doesn't have that many feelings: Children's understanding of AI through interactions with smart speakers in their homes
in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence
| Description | As part of this research, we needed to find out what children already know and understand about conversational agents (which they typically refer to as smart speakers). We conducted surveys (n=160) and interviews (n=12) with children in two schools to find out their opinions and knowledge about smart speakers in their homes. We also asked about their views on whether it is acceptable to be rude to a smart speaker and mitigation strategies if this occurs, as related to the other work packages. This was done in an age appropriate way. The findings are: 91% of the children had smart speakers in their homes, and they frequently use them (with younger children doing so more frequently). The children tended to overestimate the intelligence of the smart speaker, and over and underestimated various risks to data privacy from using smart speakers. They were concerned about their privacy but unaware of how data is used by smart speaker companies. They did not think it was appropriate to be rude to smart speakers, and thought that in response to rude users, the smart speaker should either ignore them or call out the user's behaviour. Furthermore, teachers do not feel prepared to teach this topic to their learners. These findings are helping us to prepare educational resources for children and teachers about this topic. |
| Exploitation Route | The survey/interview findings will be of use to other researchers who who are investigating children's digital rights wrt data privacy. They could also inform efforts to include children in the design of new AI products, as called for by UNICEF's framework for AI and Children |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| URL | https://dataschools.education/childrens-understanding-of-smart-speakers/ |
| Description | Edinburgh Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We ran a 2 day drop-in session about conversational agents at the family Science Festival section of the Edinburgh Science Festival at the National Museum of Scotland |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | School event about how Alexa works |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We visited a school to run a workshop to explain how Alexa works and address some of the misconceptions we found in or empirical study. It is too early to tell the impact of this event as it is so recent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Teacher workshop including Smart Speakers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We ran a workshop for 15 primary school teachers about data literacy which included a section on smart speakers. We presented the empirical findings of children's knowledge and views on the topic and asked the teachers to plan lessons about it. It is too early to state impact as this workshop was only a couple of months ago. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |