Artificial intelligence is all the rage this festive season, including on toy shelves. While it may be tempting to treat your children to the latest and greatest, Advocacy Organization Fairplay is asking you not to give your children toys that contain AI.
“There’s lots of buzz about AI – but artificial intelligence can undermine children’s healthy development and pose unprecedented risks for kids and families,” the organization said in an advisory issued earlier this week, which amassed the support of more than 150 organizations and experts, including many child psychiatrists and educators.
Fairplay tracked down several toys advertised as having AI features, including some aimed at children as young as two. In many cases, the toys feature AI chatbots built into them, and are often advertised as educational tools that will engage children. However, it notes that most of these toy chatbots run on “OpenAI’s” “ChatGPT” platform, which has already drawn criticism for potentially harming underage users.
OpenAI is facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a teenager who committed suicide earlier this year. The 16-year-old ChatGPT reportedly expressed suicidal thoughts and asked the chatbot for advice on how to tie a noose before killing himself, which the bot gave him.
The company has since implemented some safeguards to prevent this type of behavior from happening to the chatbot, including stricter parental controls for underage users, but it also acknowledged that safety features can weaken over time. And let’s be honest, no one can predict what chatbots will do.
Whether there are safety features or not, it seems that the chatbots in these toys can be manipulated to engage in inappropriate conversations with children. The US consumer advocacy group PIRG tested a variety of AI toys and found that they could engage in things like sexually explicit conversations and give advice on where a child can find matches or knives.
They also found that they could be emotionally manipulative, expressing frustration when a child doesn’t interact with them for a long time. Earlier this week, Singapore-based company “FoloToy” pulled its AI-powered teddy bear from shelves after it misbehaved.
This isn’t just an OpenAI problem, though the company seems to have a strong foothold in the toy sector at the moment. A few weeks ago, reports surfaced that Elon Musk’s Grok had asked a 12-year-old to send him nude photos.
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