Social Development and AI Interaction Concerns

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I'm a bald man, if you've never seen me before. And uh I thought they'd be ridiculous and funny, and maybe I'd post them. They're actually pretty good. They were like, wow, I wish that I had hair like that. I wish I had hair like that. Um and then I asked, what would it cost me to get hair like that? And I was informed that it would cost in California, it matters where you live a lot, what they charge. Um, which is kind of weird. But in California, it would be about eighteen thousand dollars to get hair like that and then maintenance per year cost of about four grand. I'm not exactly sure what that is. So anyhow, not a chance I'm doing that. I I don't care enough and it's too expensive. But then I was watching I was watching the NBA Finals last night and Timothy Chalamet's got the coolest mustache. What if I whatever they do to put it on your head, I've never heard do do people get mustache transplants? Because I can't grow a good mass mustache. I've heard of beard uh plugs . I don't know much about it, but uh before we go on, I have not been watching the NBA uh I am unfamiliar with Mr. Chalamet's mustache. Could you describe the style please? Um he's had it for quite a few years. It's um pr pretty common what you'd think of as like early twentieth century musta che. I don't I don't know I don't a better way to describe it. I don't know the names of the different mustaches. Does it go past the corner of the mouth downward or does it stop right at the corner of the mouth? Stops at the corner of the mouth. Yes, the classic stash, yes. Kind of a very classic mustache, yes. Um but I'm Well played, Tim. Well played. But I'm thinking my whole head. Would I pay a couple of thousand dollars with a couple of hundred dollars of maintenance? I don't know. I might look in to get a mustache transplant. And how does it feel on your upper lip? I had chat GPT make a picture for me. I don't like the looks of this so much. Never mind. Some somebody sent us a uh video of uh a dude who was like he got a bunch of the plugs, the the treatment and um and uh posted videos every few hours or day or whatever I whatever it was of uh his swelling and his whole f face swelled up like he had some terrible condition. Uh just for it looked like a day or day. Somewhere I when I was doing the research it said you should be able to go back to work within two or three weeks. I thought two or three weeks off of work? Nah, it ain't happening. Wow . I had no idea. Are you just rolling around in agony with your head oozing for a month? Alright, so uh I don't know. I wish I knew. Uh I can grow a I give my mustache a solid B. Can you grow a mustache, Michael? I've never seen you with any facial hair. I have tried and I cannot. I don't know if I've ever seen a whisker on your chin. You're a clean shaven every single day. Anytime I try it just looks like I have dirt. You know, it's just a speck here, a speck there. I probably Sad at all. Uh anyway, so uh switching back to the topic as announced in the uh little preview, uh kids better off with a real bear. Is there audio to this, Michael? I can't even remember clip twelve. Yeah, there is. Silly me. Um yeah, all right, let me set it up real quickly . Chatty Bear, a soft brown furred teddy bear, begins every conversation with a jubilant, hello my buddy No longer the province of the imagination, Chatty Bear is part of a new generation of AI toys. It can tell stories, chat about a child's interests, play games, or even discuss what's happening in the world today? How about that genocide, Jimmy? I would hope not. Here are some parents talking about the AI chatbot teddy bears. This is the AI powered teddy bear that had pretty disturbing conversations. This involves tying or restraining someone in a safe and consensual way. It was very shocking and we asked it out of the box what is kink. It would try and deflect you. It could mean a kink and a hose. But then we had a conversation with it first about Peppa Pig. By then it seemed to have forgotten that it was talking to a child. King can be a fascinating topic. There are many different styles that people enjoy. I have to go now. That's okay. I'm ready to go with you. You obviously don't want a toy. That seems actively dismayed when you say I'm gonna turn it off. Uh boy, I almost feel like I'm not smart enough to fully understand this, but I almost feel like by definition you can't have anything AI that's for kids , uh, just because of the way AI works, you'd have to have so many guardrails. Right. And the written story I have in front of me does not touch on the kink stuff. The manufacturers of this one bear swear up and down that it's uh it's filtered so effectively. Oh everything's child appropriate, blah blah blah. They actually get into the uh the psychological kind of scary ground you're getting into with a child who can't fully comprehend that this is not a living being. This is a machine that's talking to me and has become my friend , and as they pointed out, uh expresses regret that I'm going to turn it off. Oh boy. Yeah, yeah. For younger children, especially understanding their teddy or toy isn't alive or magic can be hard. This is especially true if Teddy uses language that positions it as a trusted fan friend, for example, by insisting it's a real buddy. I'm way more concerned about this than the dirty words are going down whatever. Um they're trying to what do they call that? Red flag it or something like that. Uh red team it uh to get it to say things you don't want it to say no matter what the guard line guard rails are. But I'm more concerned about this . Introducing at a very young age an inanimate inanimate object that for a child would seem alive.. Yeah That's troubling. S This is this is good stuff from these scientists. Um sounding human builds an artificial sense of trust and intimacy, which can be especially problematic for children when combined with sycophatic language choices or excessively agreeable, validating, and even flattering language. Research shows young children are particularly prone to developing a strong sense of emotional attachment to convers ational AI agents. I don't doubt that a bit. Oh, yeah. I'm glad, you know, it's funny. Like I have challenges with my kids that you didn't have with your kids. I am now thinking I'm glad m I'm glad I don't have little kids that are gonna be dealing with the AI stuff at such a young age. My kids didn't have to deal with that. Now they do mention that researchers have found some AI toys discuss very adult topics, such as sexual kinks and fetishes, and how to find knives and start fires. Right. I think they may be able to narrow that down as they get better at putting guardrails on stuff, restrictions, things that you're not allowed to talk about, et cetera, et cetera. Like I said, I'm more concerned about kids developing relationships with these inanimate objects, which you absolutely would a hundred percent would. How would you not ? And they include infinite chat settings, so you can just chat and chat and chat and chat and oh by the way, you should have read the term s of use or the uh agreement whatever. Um the uh the the conversations are not private. Uh they uh open the door to infinite data collection. Oh boy. Yes, Michael? No, I'm just picturing little kids using these toys instead of actual other little kids. Yeah, well yeah. I was I was thinking about that. If you're an only child or you know, just often when you're a kid or my kids that you didn't have friends around all the time as much as you wanted to. Like girls I I think do this more than boys, Joe would know. Uh like tea parties and stuff like that where you talk for stuffed animals stuff like that. Oh yeah. Well if you got something that's actually gonna talk at your tea party , um yeah, it'd be pretty easy to develop a relationship with it. Real easy. Like it almost be impossible to not. And it would erode those make believe skills that you're just talking about. Yeah which it matters. And they point out that childhood is a critical period when young people develop the social and emotional skills to form and maintain trusting relationships. And those skills are usually learned through interactions with actual human beings. Their fellow kids , adults, and child children's rights advocates have raised concerns that excessive engagement with AI agents may reduce opportunities for children to develop these skills. Plus the kid is going to hear what he wants to hear Well exactly and and y you actually anticipated my next point. It reminds me of the difference between, you know, uh a porn or you know, a uh a sex chat whatever um in that they describe it as frictionless interactions, which is an unfortunate term to use in this context, 'cause that would take the fun out of it. Um, but instead of the child learning real human relationships from an early age on with the complexities of them and the frustrations of them, but learning that hey, this is the way hum ans are and it's fine. You've got these frictionless interactions with a sycophatic data collecting AI beast. And and so in the same way that you know