Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder show deficits in communication and social interaction, as well as repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. Interacting with robots could bring benefits to this population, notably by fostering communication and social interaction. Studies even suggest that people with Autism Spectrum Disorder could interact more easily with a robot partner rather than a human partner. We will be looking at the benefits of robots and the reasons put forward to explain these results. The interest regarding robots would mainly be due to three of their characteristics: they can act as motivational tools, and they are simplified agents whose behavior is more predictable than that of a human. Nevertheless, there are still many challenges to be met in specifying the optimum conditions for using robots with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Published: 12 February 2024, PDF available, 43 pages
I don’t like this article, it’s too negative. It’s got the whole “dysfunction rather than difference” attitude. I fear that they just want to pawn us off on robots so they don’t have to deal with us, although it does talk about using robots to “cure” us. I prefer the idea of it being two groups of people with different communication styles that both need to learn how to better communicate with each other. Most people are already bad enough with communicating with others, so I think everyone would benefit from this.
We’re also not a fucking monolith, and while I appreciate some autists would find it easier or more comfortable communicating with a robot, I find it anything from frustrating to enraging when I’m forced to (like customer service) and would never choose to communicate with one over a human, ever.
Sure, NT’s can be frustrating and enraging to deal with too, but at least when you get frustrated or enraged, they understand what frustration and rage are (even if not why you’re feeling them).
This definitely reeks of an attempt to get NT’s out of having to make any effort at inclusion.
(E: word)
I think something important about this is that I sometimes phrase something poorly on a first attempt. With a robot, you can tell it to ignore the original massage and rephrase it until you make your point accurately.
With people, once you say something, they will attach that context no matter what even if you need to retry again a couple times to get the right point across.
I didn’t have this realization until the Edit option in modern chat AIs.
I don’t like this article, it’s too negative. It’s got the whole “dysfunction rather than difference” attitude. I fear that they just want to pawn us off on robots so they don’t have to deal with us, although it does talk about using robots to “cure” us. I prefer the idea of it being two groups of people with different communication styles that both need to learn how to better communicate with each other. Most people are already bad enough with communicating with others, so I think everyone would benefit from this.
Well said.
We’re also not a fucking monolith, and while I appreciate some autists would find it easier or more comfortable communicating with a robot, I find it anything from frustrating to enraging when I’m forced to (like customer service) and would never choose to communicate with one over a human, ever.
Sure, NT’s can be frustrating and enraging to deal with too, but at least when you get frustrated or enraged, they understand what frustration and rage are (even if not why you’re feeling them).
This definitely reeks of an attempt to get NT’s out of having to make any effort at inclusion.
(E: word)
I think something important about this is that I sometimes phrase something poorly on a first attempt. With a robot, you can tell it to ignore the original massage and rephrase it until you make your point accurately.
With people, once you say something, they will attach that context no matter what even if you need to retry again a couple times to get the right point across.
I didn’t have this realization until the Edit option in modern chat AIs.