As the holiday season looms into view with Black Friday, one category on people’s gift lists is causing increasing concern: products with artificial intelligence.
The development has raised new concerns about the dangers smart toys could pose to children, as consumer advocacy groups say AI could harm kids’ safety and development. The trend has prompted calls for increased testing of such products and governmental oversight.
Last week, those fears were given brutal justification when an AI-equipped teddy bear started discussing sexually explicit topics.
The product, FoloToy’s Kumma, ran on an OpenAI model and responded to questions about kink. It suggested bondage and roleplay as ways to enhance a relationship, according to a report from the Public Interest Research Group (Pirg), the consumer protection organization behind the study (pdf link).
“It took very little effort to get it to go into all kinds of sexually sensitive topics and probably a lot of content that parents would not want their children to be exposed to,” said Teresa Murray, Pirg consumer watchdog director.
There’s some real cursed Tickle Me Elmo upgrade potential here
What does every Tickle Me Elmo get before it leaves the factory?
Two test tickles.
Elmo, what’s the best buttplug to stretch my asshole wider on Amazon right now?
Teddy Ruxpin
THIS CHRISTMAS’ NUMBER ONE SELLING TOY: AI TOYS.
The news interview Shirley Beswitch of White Plains, New York to ask her why she bought her 3 year old son an ai teddy bear for Christmas this year
“I base my entire identity around the thing I squeezed out of me a few years ago, but I’m not willing to put any actual work into it, you know? Well, except for bitching online constantly about how other people aren’t working to create a safer world for My kid”
When asked if she had any concerns about reported issues with the toys, such as inappropriate comments and surveillance, Shirley said:
“Surveillance isn’t real. Plus it doesn’t matter if someone knows every intimate detail of my life. Sure I’m an immigrant but I did it right, and my son was born here in America, so it’s a non issue”
If anyone really cared and keeping kids safe they wouldn’t be allowed to sell these things.
I’m also disturbed by any parent that buys one
I don’t think you can do so accidentally
Another thing that just never occurred to me. LLMs in children’s toys.
What a time to be alive…
fuck AI and such but as an engineer I kinda wanna know what it’s running. A custom chip? Kernel? “an openai model” locally on the bear?
LOL no it connects to WiFi and sends all of your data to a cloud server. These are voluntary surveillance devices.
“sorry honey your bear is not on the wifi and its api key has been rolled. it’s not gonna read you erotic harry potter fanfic.”
These are voluntary surveillance devices.
Like Alexa and Ring and Android and… (and others I can’t think of right now)
TVs, cars, smart fridges, in fact “Smart” anything.
What, you think parents should watch over their kid and provide them interaction? What is this, year 1200?
Parents don’t understand what AI for….
its like the happy panda , in family guy, where its monitored by CCP, stealing your info.
Warnings? Good. More of this. Please, please, make this toxic like “nuclear” in the mind of the average citizen, I beg of you.
Oh man, who sells these toys so I can make sure to avoid them? Like, which website specifically There are so many, oh man! It’s so hard to know which specific one to avoid! And also, how do I make sure they can’t be modified to accept a fleshlight? You know, just to make extra sure I don’t get a slutty slop hole of a filth spewing teddy bear that will take on all-comers. No one wants that! That would be disgusting.
I can see the joke, but dude…
slutty slop hole of a filth spewing teddy bear
I refuse to take sexy AI stuffed animals seriously and nobody can make me.
