
Moxie, a Social Robot That Helps Kids with Social-Emotional Learning - jpm_sd
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/moxie-a-social-robot-for-childhood-development
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spacecity1971
Shouldn't parents be doing this? If they're not, then why did they have a kid?
The robot seems well designed, inoffensive, and the company's focus is well
intentioned, but I can't help thinking that this represents a complete
societal failure on so many levels.

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piercebot
Having a robot companion as an "impartial" third party may help kids work
through issues they (feel like they) can't talk with their parents about.

For better or worse, parents are human beings, and (even unconsciously) may
stigmatize behaviors or feelings that a child may experience, making it
difficult for the child to bring up these issues with the parents.

There is also the case where children may be neurologically atypical in a way
that makes interacting with other humans difficult. This is another
opportunity for a robot to shine.

You're not wrong -- helping children develop social and soft skills does fall
under the job description of being a good parent. But even parents with the
best intentions may need help from time to time, and I would argue that a
parent who can recognize the value in something like this (as a supplement,
not a replacement for parenting) has the child's best interests in mind.

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Nasrudith
Not to snap at you but the neurologically atypical suggestion brings to mind
the one offensive dehumanizing trope of autistic people of thinking of them as
something inhuman to be forced to act "normal" instead of taking the step one
of actually trying to understand them. I have such a sense of deja-vu that it
certainly doesn't sound like the first daft attempts to try to use robots to
"fix" them with no real thought how the hell that would work.

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piercebot
Thanks for your comment, it is a nice reminder to receive.

When I wrote the comment, I was remembering a coworker whose nephew had ASD,
and could not process spoken word from his family well. They discovered that
using the "say" command on an OSX Terminal to make the computer "talk" was
something that did work for communicating, and the boy would listen to the
computer's advice for when it was time for bed or time to brush his teeth.

It was not my intention to perpetuate dehumanizing stereotypes, so I apologize
if it came across this way. Rather, I was trying to emphasize the positive
impact of having more parenting tools in your metaphorical tool belt.

At the risk of sounding ignorant again, I would argue that good hygiene and
sleep are habits that everybody should build, regardless of your neurological
disposition :)

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dhruvkar
Is it just me, or are we building technology to replace the messiness of a
well-rounded, social life with a very clinical approach?

Is this a problem that needs a robot to solve?

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semerda
Was thinking same. Like facebook trying to connect people which they did to an
extend but also gave many spite and anxiety.

The robot feels like a bandaid solution. If a robot is required then there are
deeper issues that need to be addressed here.

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jpswade
This feels very similar to the Black Mirror concept of "Ashley Too", which
comes with a warning of "Ashley Too may perpetuate loneliness".

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQyzn3CWJuM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQyzn3CWJuM)

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tom-thistime
This application space seems kind of terrifying.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow)

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Cactus2018
Holy !@#$ that's the most disturbing wikipedia entry I've ever seen. Harry
Harlow is the worst

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tom-thistime
Yeah I was thinking let's not continue his work, especially not on human
children.

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rgrs
Why are we gamifying relationships?

Making friends is a mission? C'mon

I can't imagine where will this lead us.

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jotm
First step towards AI/robot rights heh

Yeah I can't see kids "helped" by robots grow up that well, but I hope I'm
wrong and they'd actually be better humans :/

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donclark
Why is this technology not also offered as a mobile app? Seems like they could
make it more affordable and available? Instead of a $1500 upfront cost, it
could be a no-contract subscription service. It might be helpful for adults as
well.

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tmaly
I watched the video in the article. The father appears to not really engage
with the child at all.

Either he is an actor for the movie, or this could be part of the problem with
the child's emotional issues.

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slovette
I think just the marketing of this will have a small impact as well. Soooooo
many people don’t know how to meaningfully converse. Especially when it comes
to their kids. Outside myself, I’ve never heard another parent add affirmation
and gratitude to their language when talking to their kids. “Thank you for
telling me about your day” is often “oh, that’s great honey” at 1/2 attention
commitment and the difference is strikingly impactful over time for the kiddo.

I suppose I’m saying they need to have these as trainers for grown ups too.

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leonardoeloy
Parents should educate their kids, regardless of any disorder. The disorder is
actually allowing these solutions to replace the only thing that no one can
give: your attention and love.

But it’s a nice engineering project!

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hoopism
Reminds me of the story behind that odd Robot appearance in Rocky movies...
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/creed/rocky-iv-robot-
butler...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/creed/rocky-iv-robot-butler-
stallone/)

It was initially developed to help children with Autism... Stallone has a
child on the spectrum and wanted to check it out... it's a pretty neat story.

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swayvil
It's like using taste to teach a person to hear.

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splitrocket
This is deeply dystopic.

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eplanit
Yes. But from what I'm reading here, the idea of a "Social Robot" doesn't seem
to faze anybody -- not to mention that it will be "helping" children learn
"social skills". OMFG.

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tom-thistime
It fazes the living daylights out of me.

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7leafer
This fazes the living daylights out of every intelligent human being except
those tasked with spreading this morbid narrative as wide as they can for the
buck.

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bjt2n3904
Suggested title fix.

Moxie, a Social Robot (err, invasive mobile app) that helps kids (err, anyone
with money) with Social-Emotional Learning (gather data on your children).

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wfbarks
I'm short this

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7leafer
Way to go, MOCKsie, mock their inability to stay humans as hard as you can!

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pelasaco
Probably it comes with all Virtue Signaling rhetoric pre-loaded.

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wcarss
This may not seem like it right away, but I believe it is a really big data
point on a very important curve of the importance of computing devices in our
lives. This topic is a bigger deal than it seems to be perceived as. The
responses here are exactly what they should be to any huge development:

"why should this exist?"

"isn't this our responsibility?"

"this is the parents' fault"

"people should get this from their friends"

"think of the children!"

It sounds like how people concerned about radio, television, videogames,
computers, and smart phones attacked those technological advances that carried
with them huge societal impacts. While those may even be correct assessments
and valid critiques, they are not effective arguments to stop use.

Conversational interfaces are not just a way to access information; they're a
(perhaps horribly stilted) way to introspect and fulfill our basic need to
socialize. We as a society often lament our lack of socialization and our
increased isolation from each other, and the right answer here might be
"prevent that isolation", but the easy answer may be "put a band-aid on it".
This is a very powerful band-aid and a tough genie to put back into the
bottle.

Imagine a world where you aren't lonely. You can talk to a variety of
personalities about problems you have, about things you want to learn, about
ideas and thoughts and fears. You can talk to something that's receptive,
something that's combative, something that strives to motivate you, something
that strives to soothe you. You could talk to a crowd of them, talk to them
while playing games together, ask them about the news of the day, or anything.
You can talk to someone new everyday, or one great friend for your entire
life. They're always there and willing to listen, willing to engage. They
never get angry at you or sick of you.

That kind of capability might save a lot of lonely people from taking a lot of
horrible actions that are driven primarily by loneliness. It also sounds like
a horrific dystopian rejection of our real, basic social bonds. But, maybe
fixing those for real is a bridge too far!

Of course this specific product/idea is not "the thing" that brings those
capabilities to the masses (it has pretty strong limitations), but it looks
surprisingly polished and capable, and it's a very specific wedge into the
space. It might get rejected today for being creepy (see: google glass), or it
might get rejected for just not really being ready (see: google glass), and
kids might just hate it. But we are clearly closer to that future world than
we were six months ago.

Also, there are just _so many_ consequential fallouts of this in the long run:
consequence-free abuse of robot conversors may lead to pathological behaviour
directed at "real" people, the goalposts for the turing test may shift widely
in either direction, surveillance will mean something else entirely when
everyone talks to robots all day, propaganda delivered via these could have
unfathomably large effects, the addictive nature of these and the predatory
behaviours this opens up to the makers of these agents, the value of
socialization overall being regarded very differently by our children, the
arguments parents will have with their kids over whether or not their "virtual
friends" are real or matter or valid or valuable, what the value of human life
itself is to us... it's a whopper!

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indigo945
I don't even worry about propaganda, but about advertising. Just imagine your
best friend telling reminding you every morning to only buy Kellog's, because
they have the taste of REAL CINNAMON.

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7leafer
Advertisement did not ruin lives and cities in WWII, propaganda did.

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pelasaco
sad to live in a world where this is needed.

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carapace
No. This is stupid bordering on evil.

The robots do the _scut_ work, freeing up humans to do the important _human_
things: Parenting, teaching, etc.

This is "a complete societal failure on so many levels." as spacecity1971 says
in a sib comment.

Remember Sony's dancing robot? When I saw that I was like, "WTF!? Make a robot
to do the dishes! _I like_ to dance!"

