When asked about their willingness to allow robots powered by AI technology to operate on their young children (ages eight and younger), Millennial parents in a 2018 IEEE global survey were likely to allow it, particularly in Asia: 82 percent in China and 78 percent in India said they would be "very likely". Meanwhile, 45 percent in both the U.S. and U.K. say they would be "very likely". Compared to a recent 2020 global survey, a majority of Millennial parents are 29 percent extremely or 31 percent very likely to allow robots powered by AI to conduct surgery on their child. Though parents in China are 63 percent very and 26 percent extremely likely to allow robotic surgery on their child, 41 percent of American parents say they are not likely at all to allow it.

TechRepublic's Karen Roby interviewed Dr. Karen Panetta, IEEE fellow and dean of engineering at Tufts University, about the tech organization IEEE and a recent study concerning AI and healthcare. The following is an edited transcript of their interview. Dr. Karen Panetta: This is the third year that IEEE has been looking at artificial intelligence and the public perception of it with all the advances that are coming out. Most people think artificial intelligence is this magic black box. But those of us in the field understand that it really is very robust, proven technology.

Around the globe, a majority of Millennial parents say they are very likely to seek out a doctor using AI for cancer diagnoses should their child or a family member need such an evaluation. A majority of Millennial parents in China (94%), India (88%) and Brazil (78%) would be very likely to seek out a doctor using AI for cancer diagnoses for their child or a family member, while 59% of U.K. parents and 53% of U.S. parents are very likely to do so.

Medical-related artificial intelligence could be the way of the future. The thought of high-tech devices tracking our health and giving us medical advice, diagnosing our condition or even performing certain medical tasks is scary to some but recently IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization, conducted a survey about how millennial parents feel about how these issues affect their children and the result may shock you. Technology has continued to change the medical industry and the near future is no exception. What we have in our hospitals is simply amazing compared to what we had 100 years ago and 100 years from now medicine will no doubt be unrecognizable from what we have today. Change, however, can be a little scary at times.

Medical-related artificial intelligence could be the way of the future. The thought of high-tech devices tracking our health and giving us medical advice, diagnosing our condition or even performing certain medical tasks is scary to some but recently a company called IEEE conducted a survey about how millennial parents feel about how these issues affect their children and the result may shock you. Technology has continued to change the medical industry and the near future is no exception. What we have in our hospitals is simply amazing compared to what we had 100 years ago and 100 years from now medicine will no doubt be unrecognizable from what we have today. Change, however, can be a little scary at times.

With AI technology on the rise, Generation Alpha children may never experience a doctor's appointment without the presence of medical artificial intelligence (AI). As an IEEE report revealed, their millennial parents are growing more comfortable with the technology. IEEE's study found that millennial parents across the globe are becoming increasingly comfortable with AI health technology for their Generation Alpha children. Most respondents noted that they would have "at least some trust" in AI tech. SEE: IT leader's guide to the future of artificial intelligence (Tech Pro Research) Globally, 56% of respondents noted that they had a "great deal of trust" in AI technologies for diagnosing and treating their sick children.

The findings of the study are evolutionary, not revolutionary, as views towards artificial intelligence have become more refined over the years. These findings reflect the growing acceptance of robots in the classroom and elsewhere by children, millennial parents, and teachers. Robots were initially used in the classroom to help children with autism and have now been in classrooms as teaching assistants or tools for several years. A separate study by the IEEE found that teachers, "had numerous positive ideas about the robot's potential as a new educational tool for their classrooms." These robots, however, were not true artificial intelligence and required programming to perform specific educational tasks.

As artificial intelligence capabilities expand in the future, Millennial parents may be open to using it in their children's lives. The study, comprising a survey of 600 parents between 20 and 36 years old who have at least one child younger than eight, was designed to gauge parents' sentiment toward using AI in the lives of so-called'Generation Alpha' children. IEEE defines Generation Alpha as children born between 2010 and 2025 and expects artificial intelligence to be present in'nearly every aspect of their lives.' When it comes to teaching their children, almost three quarters (74%) of Millennial parents said they would consider using an AI tutor. Fewer than a quarter (10%) said they would not consider it at all, according to the study.

The South By Southwest (SXSW) festival is a whirlwind best described as "trying to drink from a firehose". There is so much happening at any one moment you have a real fear of missing out. Even though this was my third visit, the challenge of navigating the schedule to ensure you find the gems while making time to meet some of the most brilliant minds in tech, digital and content creation can be overwhelming. Robotics is moving at a rapid pace but still the sheer oddness and impracticality of what I saw was at times astounding. The best example for me was presented by Japanese Communication giant NTTS's Dr Higashinaka and roboticist Dr Ishiguro who have built life-sized robotic humanoid models that can have basic conversations with humans.