"Alexa, why are you so stupid?" - Is our rude treatment of AI devices a problem?

A few weeks ago, my mum got Alexa (an Alexa? the Alexa?) in her house, and she and my step-dad were keen to show off how it (she?) can play any song, tell us the weather forecast, and other things. Of course, my son and I were straight in there, asking for songs, asking it questions, and making requests. (I've had "OK Google" on my phone for years so it's hard to say why Alexa had such novelty appeal, but it did.)

However, it didn't take long for our conversations with Alexa to deteriorate into exchanges such as this:
- Alexa, how is cheese made from milk?

The Alexa family - image from Amazon

- I'm sorry, I don't have that information.
- Yeah well you're pretty stupid then aren't you?

- Alexa, what is the temperature today?
- The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare...
- Alexa, that wasn't what I asked you!
- I'm sorry, I don't have that information.
- Alexa, why are you so
incompetent?
- I'm sorry, I don't have that information.

I began to wonder whether it was problematic for us to speak to Alexa (Google, Siri, Cortana) in such a rude way. It began with us adults (probably me more so than my parents) and soon my son was saying "Alexa is really stupid isn't she?" and I began to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps this was just an example of bad parenting on my part? But I've observed a similar phenomenon in too many other people for me to think that I am an anomaly ( although, the behaviour's being commonplace doesn't rule out its being an example of bad parenting, I understand.) In fact I recall the first time I heard of Siri, my friend demonstrated it to me, and was showing me how Siri responded when you swore at and insulted her/it.

Now, Alexa, Siri etc. have no feelings to be hurt when we speak to them rudely, so no harm done... I mean, we've all got angry with our computers or phones when they don't do what we want, haven't we? And it doesn't matter... or does it? Just how easily we slip into rude or verbally abusive behaviour towards AI devices is (now) a concern of mine. The tech will progress, and at some point, AI devices will have feelings, opinions, personalities... and probably some day, rights. As things stand, there's no problem with being rude towards Alexa, but the next generation of AI devices - Alexa's children, if you will - will be more sophisticated, and so perhaps we (and by that I am pointing the finger squarely at myself) need to cultivate in our children a little more respect and good manners towards smart devices. I will try to catch myself whenever I want to get annoyed with my phone or computer, and consider how I would want my son to treat Alexa's 'daughter': with civility as a bare minimum.

But if electronic devices - even voice-activated ones - don't have any feelings, then it seems harmless for us to be verbally abusive towards them, but does this change when those devices give the appearance of feelings? I wonder how we'd feel if being verbally abusive towards Alexa caused her to respond with something like "I don't like it when you are rude to me; please be more well-mannered" or a simple "You've hurt my feelings" or perhaps something more aggressive such as "Hey! Don't speak to me like that! How would you like it if I called you a $@£$%?!" I think we would perhaps feel more guilty - although I imagine that some people would complain that Amazon is trying to control the way we talk. After all, some people pepper their speech with expletives as a matter of course; is it really the job of Alexa to police people's use of language? Probably not, but since it's not usually acceptable to use swearwords or be verbally abusive to others in most situations, then maybe Alexa should behave in a similar sort of way to how a normal human would behave if treated rudely?

Amazon have introduced a feature whereby Alexa praises children for saying please and thank you. I know from my own experience how hard it is to get children to say please and thank you (I must have reminded my son around 10 times a day, every day for the past two years, and still he needs reminding. He's not abnormal either: I hear many parents reminding children - even aged 10 or over - to say please and thank you!) So if Alexa can help children to be more well mannered, then all the better. But it wouldn't seem right if Alexa reminds children to say please and thank you, but not adults - after all, we should have learnt our manners by now.

Of all the voice-activated AI tech that I've had contact with (my Garmin satnav, "OK Google", Siri, Cortana, "Hi Galaxy" on my Samsung phone, and now my Mum's Alexa) none of them have required manners or prompted me to say please, so now I am accustomed to speaking to them solely with commands like "Navigate to 123 High Street", or "Show me images of great white sharks" without any manners. In fact, if you say please to my satnav, it thinks that is part of the address, and it starts searching for 'High Street Please'!

"OK Google, show me a picture of an iguana"

"OK Google, please could you show me a picture of an iguana?"

The more I think about it, the more I think that AI devices which are voice-activated ought to expect the same level of manners from users as we humans expect from one another. In our everyday lives, we might be more inclined to help out a person who is well-mannered as opposed to one who barks orders at us, and I wouldn't be surprised - I think I would be pleased, actually - if the AI devices of the future provide a better service to those who are well-mannered. Imagine: saying "OK Google, show me pictures of iguanas" retrieves poor-quality, small, grainy, pixellated photos with watermarks all over them, whereas saying "OK Google, please could you show me pictures of iguanas?" retrieves high-quality beautiful photographs. This, I think, would be progress, and it would certainly prepare us for a world where we interact with intelligent - and perhaps even emotional - artificial devices on a daily basis. I for one am going to try to change my ways (except with my satnav!)