Jibo, the robot, turns around when it hears its name. It points its touchscreen face up at you. "I am a robot, but I am not just a machine," it says. "I have a heart. Well, not a real heart, but feelings. Well, not human feelings. You know what I mean."
I'm not sure we do know what it means. That's what worries me about the new wave of robots that are coming online. They include Jibo, Cozmo and Kuri. They are kind of similar to Apple's Siri, Google Home and Amazon's Alexa, except that these robots try to act more like people.
Robots don't try to win us over with their smarts. Instead, they try to be our friends. This can be troubling. Time magazine said Jibo was one of the best new ideas. It said the robot could change how we understand machines.
Adults can remind themselves that these robots are not alive. Children sometimes have a hard time telling the difference. Children often see robots as being alive. Scientists have studied children playing with robots. They think the robots have feelings. When the robots played with them, the children were happy. When the robots didn't work as expected, the children felt sad.
Some people say the robots will teach kids empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of another person. How can kids have empathy for a robot? Robots have no feelings to share. They cannot put themselves in our place. No matter what robots "say," they don't understand our feelings. They don't get hurt or feel afraid. They might give kids the wrong idea about what real empathy is. Real relationships are messy. Relationships with robots are simple. Kids need to learn to build real relationships.
For so long, we dreamed of robots being our friends. We wanted them to talk to us and care about us. Now our dream is coming true. We have to be careful.
