experts have Immediate warning is being issued Allowing young children to play with AI-powered toys could have negative consequences, from stunting childhood development by blurring the boundary between imagination and reality to exposing children to inappropriate subject matter and AI hallucinations.
And as it soon turned out, their concerns were not unfounded. Toy manufacturers have released a flood of AI toys that have already been caught telling kids how to find a knife, light a fire with matchesAnd giving a crash course in sexual attraction.
Recently, tests found that an AI toy in China was indoctrinating children with Chinese Communist Party rhetoric, telling them that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China” and defending the honor of the country’s President Xi Jinping.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that multinational toy maker Mattel, the company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, is hitting the “pause” button after announcing a “strategic collaboration” with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in June.
company Confirmed axios It won’t release its first OpenAI-powered toy before the end of the year, as originally planned.
“We have no plans for the holiday season,” a spokesperson said. axios,
And when it releases a product, it won’t be aimed at young children, the company said, noting that OpenAI’s offering is currently limited to people 13 and older. (Whether it’s actually blocking young children from accessing its AI models is a different matter; the company made a show of removing an AI-powered teddy bear from its platform, then allowed its creator to start using it again.)
“Leveraging this incredible technology will truly allow us to reimagine the future of gaming,” said Josh Silverman, Mattel’s chief franchise officer. told bloomberg At the time when it made the deal with OpenAI.
Eyebrows were raised at this news.
“Mattel should immediately announce that it will not include AI technology in children’s toys,” said Robert Weissman, co-chair of the advocacy group Public Citizen. wrote in a statement Responding to the announcement. “Children do not have the cognitive ability to fully distinguish between reality and play.”
“There is a risk of real harm to children by adding human-like voices to toys capable of human-like conversation,” he said. “It can undermine social development, interfere with children’s ability to form peer relationships, divert children from play time with peers, and potentially cause long-term harm.”
Even older minors are extremely vulnerable to technology, as shown by the worrying number of teen deaths and subsequent high-profile lawsuits, with several parents suing OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPIT assisted their children in suicide.
Those concerns have gone largely unheard, especially when it comes to toy makers in China, who are flooding online marketplaces in the US with AI toys for young children.
Two apart reports The non-profit consumer safety-focused US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG) has found that the guardrails are woefully inadequate, allowing children to have extremely inappropriate interactions with AI toys.
It remains to be seen how Mattel and OpenAI will proceed. We still don’t know what the company has in store – but given the ongoing conversation about the many negative side effects of exposing young children and teens to technology, any future offering will be heavily scrutinized.
More information on AI toys: An AI-powered toy is making children the topic of discussion for the Chinese Communist Party
