ABOUT SIRI
AND HER
HUMAN FRIENDS
HOW WE STARTED
This project is part of a UBC mobile education course that explores the frontiers of education, culture and technologies. We decided to present a debate of the light and dark sides to artificial intelligence virtual assistants (AIVAs), or smart assistants.
WHY AIVAs?
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Siri and her siblings are currently peripheral bots that comb databases and provide reasoned responses to support everyday actions. Smart assistants will be woven into our daily lives in the coming years. We no longer have to pull a record off the shelf and place it on the turntable. A mere flick of the tongue starts the beat. Knowing how to navigate in a digitally-assisted world is important for our wellbeing and possibly our humanity.
Cody Peters
UBC ETEC 523 Student
I am a masters student studying educational technology at the University of British Columbia. I am by no means a tech-fanatic, but I do utilize a myriad of different technologies for both educational and recreational purposes. I also utilize technology in a much more inter-personal sense, as I am a type 1 diabetic and have a sensor embedded in my arm in order to regulate my blood sugar levels, so I am by no means shy about integrating new technology into my life. When it comes to Siri and her siblings, however, I tend to remain on the darker side of the debate. While I acknowledge the plethora of potentially beneficial applications of utilizing an AI virtual assistant in more aspects of my life, the unknown consequences and implications of granting an ever expanding look into my personal life to an unknown quantity of people or corporations gives me pause. While I may not have anything to hide, I believe there is already enough information about me that is being logged through my online activities and internet searches that I would rather have less information about me out in the proverbial void, not more. I would consider my outlook on the subject to be a bit of skeptical optimism, in that I do believe that there are a great deal of ways Siri and her siblings can be utilized for the betterment of everyone, but I worry about how they may also be used to our detriment. Only time will tell, and I prefer to err on the side of caution rather than blind optimism.
Miguel rojas
UBC ETEC 523 Student
Hola! My name is Miguel Rojas. I come from a small town in Monteverde, Costa Rica where I had the privilege of studying in an English immersion school. I had the opportunity of studying abroad in Portland Oregon for my grade 10 year. The experience was so fulfilling that after I returned to Costa Rica, I immediately found myself invested in studying abroad somewhere else again. It wasn’t after graduating from grade 12 that I then had the pleasure of immersing myself in Canadian culture as a student. I retook grade 12 at Sardis Secondary School. After completing my studies at Trinity Western University, I joined the education program and became a high school teacher in PE, Math, and Spanish. Becoming a teacher was not just a huge accomplishment in my life but a blessing. I love my job and wake up every morning looking forward to the experiences and beautiful moments I will undergo at work. After 3 years of teaching, I feel the need to expand my knowledge in my line of work and decided to move forwards to my next chapter in my life, the masters program. Now here I am! I have joined the UBC Masters in Educational Technology. I love and feel very lucky to be living in the era of technology and cannot wait to see how I can combine my love for technology and my love for teaching into one. I believe Mobile Education and use of AI voice assistants (Siri and her siblings) can remodel my educational methods and pedagogies using technology in the class.