Tuesday; December 17
The other morning I asked my Artificial Intelligence device to do something for me and she did. I was feeling giddy that day and flippantly said, “thank you” to which she responded with “You are welcome” and some other platitude. In all honesty I knew that she was going to respond in some way – the device is not human, but it has been programmed to respond to certain prompts. It is obvious that “thank you” is one of them that gets a set answer. Now, you may be wondering why my morning routine generated an article. No, it isn’t because my life is so shallow that I have to carry on a conversation with Alexia, nor is it that I am overly impressed with modern technology. As I reflected on this interaction it reminded me that if we want to raise grateful children, we need to help program appropriate responses to compliments and expressions of gratitude. No, I am not comparing our children to an electronic device, but what I am saying is that if we...