This Week: Roblox, "Age Verification" and How AI is Literally Eating the Web
The impact and implications of AI are becoming exceedingly clear. From the web's fragile infrastructure, and intrusions into our communities, to the decisions we need to make about privacy...
Most of us are still getting our heads around whether we like these sycophant, sometimes wrong, and often remarkable, chatbots and now we’re being forced to wrestle with what it takes to make them.
What has become clear is that the requirements to create AI are far beyond our collective comprehension (🙋🏼♀️). From data needs so vast that the Internet doesn’t contain enough high quality information to train AI systems, to computing power requiring million-square-foot facilities that stress the environment and local community infrastructure.
There are also continued, and elevated, concerns about privacy and safety coming at us with increasing speed. And new tradeoffs that we may not have considered before. One of these is the uncomfortable suggestion that capturing and analyzing a selfie of our kids is the way to make platforms safer.
For families with kids who are Roblox enthusiasts, this is now the choice that must be made imminently.
A Solution Worse Than the Problem?
Increasingly, families are caught in the middle of a maelstrom of issues related to social media and other website harms, alongside a list of suggested “solutions” coming from every direction.
These days the most popular answer to kids clamoring to get onto social media and gaming sites seems to be “age verification” via AI facial-recognition systems. While these tools may appease an industry looking to remove their liability, or serve as a seemingly tidy solution for anti-social media advocates and lobbyists, it’s critical to consider the implications for kids.
In the news this week was the decision by Roblox to use just one of these systems to organize and gatekeep children by age. It’s a thorny issue as the company has faced lawsuits and kids have been preyed upon by adults pretending to be kids. But unless you are comfortable with this type of verification method, your child won’t be able to chat while playing Roblox games.
The problem is that a child’s “biometric” information—and in this case their face—is, in the age of AI especially, one of the most sensitive pieces of “data.” Leaving aside the question of how accurate these tools are, or that Roblox insists that the image isn’t “stored,” there is a legitimate question of additional risk being added to the mix.
Biometric imagery can be used to create deepfakes, to participate in online fraud, and is data that is immutable—which you cannot change once stolen. And when combined with other data available on the web, it can create a headache that follows kids into the future.
It’s also important to remember that a company’s “solution” is far more about liability than safety. While that may seem overly blunt, we have to remember these are corporate entities that have to be driven by legal obligation first, even if, of course, many also want kids to be safe.
So like with everything, it’s all about measure. And I’m confident that families are able to make these difficult and highly-personal decisions when they have the necessary information. But it’s important to know the tradeoffs and that no one cares more about your child’s privacy and well-being than you.
The one thing that I would implore you to resist, though, is pressure to make any decision based on what another believes to be “virtuous” or “good.” Once armed with all the facts and an understanding of all sides of any issue, you will know what is right for your family. There is no easy out here, no “best.”
I had an exchange on this topic recently after reading this excellent assessment of what is going on right now with age verification. It’s worth a read!
Want to discuss? Please feel free to reach out.
A Dystopian Headache in the Making
Now let’s talk data centers.
Put simply, a data center is where AI intelligence is “made.” They (ironically) can be as big as 15-20 football fields and have outsized electricity and water needs as a result.
I wrote this week about how they are becoming a surprising (and not particularly welcome) result of the race to build AI. Read more here »
Data centers are showing up in other ways as well… in particular, by sending an enormous amounts of traffic through to the web.
In the article above I also recount how my website was being flooded by data center traffic, especially from China and Singapore, and how I came to realize so was the entirety of the Internet.
If we go back to the fact that AI is created by a simple formula of data + algorithms (the “models” or math here) + computing power (the data centers), you start to see where we see the impact.
How to Talk to Kids About Technology
I’ve had some fantastic conversations this week with educators, families, and others wrestling with how we keep up-to-date ourselves while protecting our kids. And in every case, I’ve suggested that we give kids a voice, encourage personal agency, and allow them a say in finding solutions.
Now, this is easier said than done, and certainly there are age-appropriate considerations, as well as what works for you and your family. But we created these savvy “digital natives” and now we need to let them show us what it means.
We need to ask our kids to show us what they know, how they understand AI and new technology, and what they’re discovering too. We should have them explain the risks as they see them and what solutions they suggest.
Even in my household where I talk about these issues incessantly, my kids always teach me something new every day, and are paying attention to news in ways that I miss. Instead of keeping kids off platforms, it can help to discover together the risks and perhaps have them reach their own conclusions about safety.
It’s incredibly difficult, but we must remember that the kids of today will lead us into tomorrow. So it’s not just for their benefit to turn them into leaders regarding these issues…it’s for ours as well.
Want suggestions about how to talk to kids? Contact me and I’ll share some conversation starters.
Before You Go
If you haven’t had a chance, please check out my interview with the amazing Felicia Pasadyn! She’s such an inspiration and a reminder of the very “human” skills our kids will need in the future. Look for more great profiles in the weeks ahead!
