AI's empathy gap
Dr Nomisha Kurian, Cambridge Department of Sociology
This event took place on 26th March 2024.
Abstract
For children today, a "chat" with AI is just a click away. Rapid advancements in large language models, and the surge of scientific and pedagogical interest in generative and conversational AI, raise critical questions around children’s safety. Conceptualising AI as consisting of ‘an empathy gap’, this talk focuses on a child-centred approach to AI that takes into account key risks to children's interests, from the dangers of anthropomorphisation to the flaws of natural language processing. The talk therefore flags the under-researched consequences of AI for children's wellbeing, underscoring the ethical imperative of safeguarding children and informed sociotechnical advocacy for responsible, child-centered AI design. It concludes with a set of specific practical considerations for educators and researchers across multiple dimensions of policy and practice.
Biography
Dr. Kurian is a Teaching Associate and Associate Fellow at the Cambridge Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. She specialises in child wellbeing and is currently examining how innovations in Artificial Intelligence impact the wellbeing and development of young children. She recently became the first Education researcher to win the Cambridge Applied Research Award for "outstanding research with real world application" and also recently received the Cambridge Vice-Chancellor's Award for Social Impact. Previously, as a Yale University Henry Fellow, she used international human rights law to design an anti-bullying framework for marginalised children. Her work has most recently been published in the Oxford Review of Education, the British Educational Research Journal, and the International Journal of Human Rights. She co-chairs the University of Cambridge Wellbeing and Inclusion Special Interest Group and previously co-chaired the Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group.