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Nudge Robot

My friend B was complaining about her teen being constantly immersed in his electronics to the exclusion of everything else in life and how the pandemic can exacerbated the problem. She is not alone here but that does not make her plight any easier. As we chatted, we tossed the idea of a robot that could nudge kids into doing things that were good for them and disable all electronics until the beneficial tasks were done. It was amusing to consider these intermittent digital blackouts to help him put away his things, complete his homework, do his household chores and more. The idea is not novel and no surprise there are ethical concerns around it. 

Who should be the arbiter of good and is it humane to trigger Pavlovian responses for such good are the first questions that come to mind. In the example of a robot that is meant to nudge a recalcitrant teen into building good habits and life-skills, it can be argued that is it automation of some parental duties. Instead of being the constant nag and bickering all day with your kid, presumably you get the nudge robot to do the unpleasant work on your behalf. So the rules by which the said robot delivers its nudges is no different from those of the parent. 

There is no such thing as the perfect, infallible parent so it follows that the robot will be similarly flawed. The short term benefits are alluring, all devices go dark until homework is done, piano practice is completed, room tidied up and so on. But the parent gets disintermediated in the process - this is no different than turning on cartoons to placate a fussing child. Parenting should be the job of the parent and when it is outsourced, that entity be it a person or a robot acquires the mantle of parent in some sense. Long term that is not a good idea for anyone involved. 

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