Is AI coming to our children? Why the latest wave of pop culture tech anxiety is no surprise

As artificial intelligence becomes mainstream, its intrusion into children’s lives is causing immense anxiety. The global panic surrounding AI co-opting children’s play and culture has manifested itself in unpredictable ways.

Earlier this year, a Swiss comedian created a movie trailer for an imagined remake of the beloved children’s story Heidi using the Gen-2 AI engine.

More than 25 film and television retellings of Heidi (including the most famous 1937 version starring Shirley Temple) are key to cultural archetypes of childhood innocence. The viral AI-generated version has caused a stir for being a godless abyss, nightmare fuel and completely soulless and separate from humanity.

This is not the first time AI has been used to recreate childhood images through the creation of cultural artefacts. Researchers trained a deep learning algorithm using children’s books by Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and others, with the result that the images in the stories were described as apocalyptic nightmares. world and images from hell.

When a tech worker used ChatGPT and Midjourney to create a children’s book, he received death threats.

M3GAN and AI dolls

One of the most successful horror films of 2022, M3GAN, depicts the disturbing results of a grieving girl’s friendship with an extremely realistic AI-powered doll.

A clip of M3GAN dancing (her face expressionless as her body imitates moves from youth dance trends on social networks) has gone so viral that the director calls it “unbelievable.” M3GAN strikes a cultural chord, expressing our discomfort with the way AI co-opts and distorts children’s culture.

The Artifice Girl (2022) depicts an AI-generated nine-year-old child designed to attract online predators, highlighting debates about AI ethics. Critic Sheila O’Malley compared this to Blade Runner (1982), asking:

If a memory is implanted in the android’s brain, a ‘personal’ memory of a childhood that never happened, then isn’t that memory something real to the android? Android can’t tell the difference. It feels real. At a certain point, what is “real” or not is irrelevant. This is where things get unsettling, and Artifact Girl sits in that very unsettling place.

AI tools are no match for our childhood imaginations. The constellation of play, games, stories, and toys that constitute the social world of children is a symbol of innocence, innocence, and freedom from the darkest burdens of adult life.

Childhood studies link myths of freedom and innocence to faith in humanity. As AI tools subvert children’s culture, they arouse our deepest fears about AI’s inhumane intelligence.

The possibility of AI imitating its human creators, while causing hallucinations and distorting reality, gives us reason to worry.

The long history of childhood technology obsession

Cultural anxieties about the intrusion of AI into children’s culture continue a history of popular culture’s preoccupation with dangerous interactions between children and untrustworthy technologies.

With Poltergeist (1982), the world was captivated by five-year-old Carol Anne’s haunting words, “They’re here…” She was listening to the poltergeists through the family television.

This resonated with parents concerned about children’s screen time, as well as video games, Dungeons and Dragons and Satanic ritual abuse. Carol Anne’s television viewing reflects the terrifying potential of technology to disrupt family life.

Read more: M3gan review: an animated doll out to destroy the nuclear family – much to the delight of fans

Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic Frankenstein, like M3GAN, depicts a young girl dangerously fascinated by embodied technology. In the 1931 film adaptation, we see Frankenstein’s monster meet seven-year-old Maria, who, overcome with initial shock, invites him out and meets an untimely end.

Come Play (2020) depicts young Oliver befriending a monster through an app, with deadly on-screen results. While Poltergeist imagined the consequences of watching too much television, Come Play reflects parents’ fears of losing their children to smartphones and video games, such as Minecraft.

AI is a lightning rod for fear

The AI ​​incarnation of M3GAN reflects the current wave of concerns. In May, AI companies made headlines when they linked AI to the possibility of human extinction. While experts refute these claims, the perception of AI as a significant threat echoes the horrors of AI depicted in movies.

An example is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which HAL 9000 takes control of a spacecraft to protect the mission. Many other films depict AI losing control, including WestWorld (1973), Tron (1982), Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), I.Robot (2004), Moon (2009), Ex Machina (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). These movies resonate today because AI seems ready to replace humans.

The idea that we could create autonomous technologies that could destroy humanity has prompted what researchers call a “moral panic.” This is a contagious fear, amplified by the media and focused on potential threats to social stability. New media often speak for young people, challenge norms, and exacerbate generational divides, contributing to recurring moral panics.

While the filmmakers highlight the potential threats of AI, today’s tools struggle to create non-toxic danishes or recipes. The real threat of AI to children includes its ability to present misleading information in convincing ways and reproduce social biases. The climate change impact of AI is becoming worrying, as are the lack of transparency and privacy concerns.

While we should not be caught up in moral panics, children’s use and understanding of AI also needs to be addressed. UNICEF is incorporating children’s rights into global AI policy, and the World Economic Forum has released an AI toolkit for children.

Although horror stories shed light on our anxieties about children’s use of technology as well as our fantasies about children’s play and culture, we don’t have to step back out of fear.