A shape of play to come: Exploring children's play and imaginaries with robots and AI

Abstract

We are rapidly moving into an era where AI and robots are part of everyday interactions in society and education, and there are immense discussions today about current and future technologies. Still, children are often not included in this discussion, while there is much to learn from current uses and children's understandings of AI and robotics. The study is based on a seven-month ethnographical work that details the implementation of a robot in two preschool groups of children aged 1–2 and 3–5 (n = 38). The study descriptively combines a framework for children's play analysis with explorative qualitative child interviews (n = 6) with the 3-5-year-olds to examine how children play with the robot and their thinking about a future with robots and AI. The results show how children's play with robots spans all of Hughes's (2011) sixteen play types and integrates robots into play in ways specific to child-robot interaction. The interviews indicate that children have well-formed knowledge about the current uses of robots and AI and elaborate imaginaries about a future with them, including critical boundaries toward robots and AI agents. The evidence shows emerging ways children relate to these. The potential of including children's actions and voices in the ongoing societal and educational debates on AI is discussed.