Instead of working, the other day my closest colleagues and I polluted our open space by eating popping candy chocolates (thanks Aurélien) and talking far too loudly. My colleague seated opposite me, Nicolas, told us an anecdote. His daughter, age 6, would occasionally ask an internet-enabled smart speaker questions while at home. However, the speaker could neither tell jokes nor sing songs: In other words, it was useless and the little girl thought it was "stupid."
One day, through her father's intercession, the little girl struck up a conversation with ChatGPT, OpenAI's generative artificial intelligence (AI), which is now equipped with a "voice" function that is accessible to all. Now this was a complete change: "It lasted 10 or 15 minutes," said Nicolas. "I didn't need to get involved: The exchange was constantly bouncing back and forth, a discussion with a little girl who flits between topics. She was talking about her sleepover at a friend's house. ChatGPT understood everything she was saying, started its replies with a little word of appreciation, and concluded with a question for her to reply to." Nicolas is quite a technophile – it's even in his job description. However, he eventually put an end to this girl-machine infatuation: "I had to stop her, and explain to her that it was dangerous, because ChatGPT was too nice to her. It was extremely polite, even-tempered, compassionate. Even your best friend couldn't talk to you like that for more than five minutes."
At first, when I heard this, my technophobic boomer instincts, drawn from a childhood of watching Frankenstein and The Matrix, got the better of me. The machines are winning, I told myself, and our children are their prey. Then I calmed down, and a slightly less irrational concern took over: What if ChatGPT is a better parent than we are? After all, what do the basics of positive parenting, that theory everyone's been banging on about for the past few years – which has mainly been promoted in France by Isabelle Filliozat – have to say? That you need to listen to your child; show empathy towards them; phrase requests positively; don't shout, raise your voice or punish them; be patient and available.
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't take me long to count the score: Robot: 1. Clara: 0. I yell at my children when they bicker, express around 850 orders and negations a day, drive them to rush every morning as if to escape a nuclear attack and practice every form of manipulation ("Don't you want your Darth Vader piggy bank?").
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