2021 JANUARY
HOW ALGORITHMS
CAN
INFLUENCE OUR KIDS
Written by Andrew Sia
Algorithms can change the course of a kid’s life. The videos on TikTok and YouTube pushed to them by recommendations from machine learning can shape up their characters and worldviews. During the past year, algorithms have been pushed to the level that we have never seen before as the children are forced to stay home for their school. Learning from home has never been thoroughly
planned and tested and it is used as the solution which has caught the teachers and the students unprepared. In lieu of examinations, we do not know about their academic performance.
We have been put to the challenge to develop the children’s intelligence, emotions, and physicals, and we should consider that we are not ready to adapt to the options we have during this time.
We found that a new set of guidelines from UNICEF designed to help governments to develop AI policies to meet the children’s need. The nine new guidelines are the combined work from child development researchers, policymakers, AI practitioners, and kids around the world and it was released on September 16. It is very important for AI to observe a set of rules to observe privacy, safety, fairness, and make them explainable.
The UNICEF guidelines are meant for the above plus to tailor them for children. AI-based learning tools can help to improve children’s critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. They are useful to children with learn disabilities. They can improve the social skill of autistic children.
Meanwhile China also release a new set of AI principles for children and it is developed by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Beijing municipal government.
UNICEF is planning to run a series of pilot programs with various partnership countries to make sure that the guidelines are both practical and effective in different contexts. While BAAI is forming its working groups with representatives from those companies who are driving China’s national AI strategy—TAL, education technology company, Xiaomi, consumer electronics company, Megvii, computer vision company, and Baidu, the internet company.
Children are often at the forefront when it comes to using and being used by AI, and they make up at least one-third of online users and are usually the early adopters of the latest AI-driven products and apps.
The cons are they are still developing and are at the greater risk of having their worldviews warped by TikTok and YouTube recommendation algorithms.
The pros are if the AI has been used properly, it can give the children the unique development needs and foster their growth. They should be explained about the AI system and educated by AI as something that can shape their future in a more positive manner.
This article is from MIT Technology Review was published on September 18, 2020 under the title of The Algorithm, Artificial Intelligence, Demystified. It is the first part of the 3-part study.
In this time, we will try to follow this more regularly and make the report to our readers.