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.
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.
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.”
On point
Save that comment and set a reminder to revisit it, when your kid is, idk, like three years old 😅
Let me tell you: every parent thinks they’re going to be this awesome parent, not like aaaaaall the other bad parents out there.
Turns out: that battle plan does not survive first contact with your child. Every parent feels like they let their former self down in their aspiration of being a good parent.
Needless to say: it’s not hard to skip shitty AI toys though.