New research from Public Interest Research Group and tests conducted by NBC News found that a wide range of AI toys have loose guardrails.

A wave of AI-powered children's toys has hit shelves this holiday season, claiming to rely on sophisticated chatbots to animate interactive robots and stuffed animals that can converse with kids. 

Children have been conversing with stuffies and figurines that seemingly chat with them for years, like Furbies and Build-A-Bears. But connecting the toys to advanced artificial intelligence opens up new and unexpected possible interactions between kids and technology. 

In new research, experts warn that the AI technology powering these new toys is so novel and poorly tested that nobody knows how they may affect young children.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not entirely unexpected. Giving such a "toy" to a child to avoid interaction with the kid (which is probably the default reason) should be considered child abuse.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    It's freaking heartbreaking how many parents seem to just want to "keep their kids busy" and be left alone.

    Like, my homie, you didn't HAVE TO reproduce if your idea of parenting is "Here's a TenCent GPT plushie to poorly mimic human connection and an iPad because I'm just really into my career right now."

    Our culture has been polluted by greedy interests to the point of failure.

    No kid deserves to be abused like that. It's intellectually and emotionally akin to introducing them to cigarettes.

    We're thrilled to be expecting, and don't take it for granted like so many seem to. This kid's gonna be read to by us human parents, gonna learn to use actual computers, appreciate vintage media, touch grass, draw/paint/sculpt for fun, and develop their own imagination.

    iPads, cocomelon, genAI, and tiktok can go die forgotten in a ditch, along with these "AI toys."

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment