Lastest news regarding AI, robots

 I found it fascinating that the author of Klara and the Sun selected Artificial Friend (AF) as the term used to refer to the artificial intelligent robots in the story, particularly given the news I heard today.  A chess robot went rogue and injured a child's finger when the child made his move too quick, without waiting for the necessary time for the robot to respond, according to Russian authorities (breaking a rule of the game).  

This news item gives an opportunity to consider one of the blog prompts provided for our EDIT 787: What would the author say about the tool associated with the book?  In this case, what might Ishiguro say about the use of artificial intelligence in our daily lives?  First, he might say, that chess robot certainly does not fit the description of Klara, who is designed to be a supportive friend! 

The chess robot broke more than just the boy's finger.  It acted in conflict with the Asimov's Three Laws of Robots:

First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Of course, Asimov's rules are fictitious but the incident reported yesterday is a real life situation that we previously only considered in movies such as The Terminator. 

In Klara the machine, human consciousness was replicated. This chess robot was not acting upon any sort of consciousness but rather just a set of programmed rules.  Officials of the tournament stated, "The robot's operators, apparently will have to think about strengthening protection so that such a situation does not happen again." 

Ishiguro's novel highlights the importance of choice and responsibility when Josie is permitted by her mother to select the AF of her choice and takes on the responsibilities of friendship with her selected AI, Klara.  In the chess robot incident, I wondered how much information the child had about responsibility when taking on the challenge of playing against the robot.  Perhaps the operators did not know this incident could happen but they should have!  It reminds me of what happens in education when initiatives are rolled out without a comprehensive analysis of consequences or even lack of ability teachers have to discuss consequences with students. 

Klara and the Sun: A reader's review

 Dystopian science fiction is typically not a genre I select as "leisure" reading material.  I tend to select this genre specifically to gain a different perspective of education and technology (translate that to mean, to inform my professional practice).  I must say, I did enjoy reading this book in my leisure. The fact that I  refrained from any notetaking when I designate a book as one for work, was a sure sign that I just might be reading for fun.  

Ishiguro's (2021) Klara and the Sun is a story about a solar-powered Artificial Friend (AF), who patiently waits day in and day out to be selected by her person.  AFs exist to serve young people/teens to alleviate loneliness.  I will not elaborate further so as not to give away any surprises....which develop over time and quite slowly in this book.  The story is told from the perspective of Klara so the reader is at times left guessing when she shares interpretations and insights. There are strange terms and situations to decipher and translate to familiar objects and things.  As the Manager constantly notes with awe, Klara is remarkable with unusual insights and observational skills.  This is somewhat of a surprise given she is not the latest generation of AFs but it also caused me to ponder the way we view older technologies vs newer technologies.

As I read the first section of the book, I was reminded of Don Freeman's Corduroy.  Later, when I read Wood's (2021) review, I was thrilled that he too mentioned a Corduroy connection.

This novel narrows the theme of What it means to be human that is found in other novels such as Asimov's (1990) The Bicentennial Man.  A main theme of Klara and the Sun focuses on What it means to love and the ever-changing complexity of love. I found Chapman's (1992) work on love languages to be particularly helpful in categorizing the different facets of love in this book. There is definitely a class system within this world (presumably the US) as Ishiguro presents a variety of reactions and behaviors toward machines, housekeepers, and the haves and have-nots.  There are subthemes related to faith vs rationality and hope vs despair (from the AF perspective), bullying, prejudice, loneliness, the circle of life, and even waste and pollution.  

What struck me about this book is that the scenario presented is purely plausible, which brings me to connections to education and the Designing Digital Learning in Schools specialization. Regarding technology, the novel addresses the direction of innovation, machine learning, the possibility of machines replacing humans, and ethics in technology innovations, specifically, the question of where do ethics come into play-- at the invention stage or implementation? Can the inventor offload ethics to the legislators who use regulations to dictate ethics? 

There's a scene in the book when Josie, the teen who selects Klara and her friend, Ricky, play a game in which she draws images with speech bubbles, and he fills in the speech bubbles with text.  This is very much like the activity we did in EDIT 782: Designing for Literacy, with the cartoons, combining two symbol systems and moving between image to text and text to image.  Teens in the book are learning virtually and using online resources to learn advanced skills.  However, there is acknowledgement that an expert is still needed to situate learning in the culture of use. 

There is a huge question raised in the book related to equity in schools, what it means to succeed, and even, the lengths parents will go to help their children....sound familiar? (Also see a connection to Lee's (2021) book, Who Gets to Be Smart: Privilege, Power, and Knowledge. 

The use of Klara in the life of Josie had little to do with Josie's learning of essential content knowledge, but more about her social, emotional, and physical growth.  It made me wonder about the place of machine learning in education and if there could be uses other than tracking progress and personalized learning. I am reminded of McDonald's (2011) Creative Spirit of Design which advocates for students to be the designer of these environments.