Stuffed animals that respond. Chess boards with pieces that move on their own. And a talking holographic fairy in a crystal ball.
Your next toy purchase could be powered by artificial intelligence and be able to converse with your children.
Chatbots and AI-powered assistants that can quickly answer questions and generate texts have become more common after the emergence of OpenAI's ChatGPT. As AI becomes increasingly intertwined in our work and personal lives, it is also revolutionizing playtime.
Startups have already launched AI toys in time for the holidays. More are expected to hit shelves for both kids and adults in the new year.
Some parents are excited to try the toys, hoping that the chatbot's interactions will educate and entertain their children. Others don't want the seemingly sensitive technology around their loved ones until it has more guardrails and undergoes more testing.
Researchers at the US PIRG Education Fund say they've already found problems with some of the toys they tested. Among the problems: an AI teddy bear that could be prompted to talk about sexual fetishes and kink, according to the group.
Toy makers say AI can make play more interactive and they take security and privacy seriously. Some have put more limits on how communicative some of these products can be. They say they are taking their time to figure out how to use AI safely with children.
El Segundo-based Mattel, maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels, announced earlier this year that it had partnered with OpenAI to create more AI-powered toys. The initial plan was to present their first joint product this year, but that announcement was postponed until 2026.
Here's what you need to know about AI toys:
What is an AI toy?
Toys have had the latest technology for decades.
Introduced in the 1980s, Teddy Ruxpin told stories out loud when a cassette was inserted into the animatronic bear's back. Furbys, furry creatures that blinked their big eyes and talked, appeared in the 90s, when digital pets, Tamagotchi, were also in fashion.
Mattel released a Barbie in 2015 that could talk and tell jokes. The toy manufacturer also marketed a dream house in 2016 that responded to voice commands.
As technology has advanced, toys have also become smarter. Now, toy makers are using large trained language models to understand and generate language that powers products like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Mattel sells a game called Pictionary vs. AI, where players draw pictures and the AI guesses what they are.
Equipped with microphones and connected to WiFi, AI toys are more expensive than traditional ones, marketed as companions or educational products, and can cost $100 or even twice as much.
Why are people worried about them?
From inappropriate content to privacy concerns, concerns about AI toys have increased this holiday season.
Researchers at the US PIRG Education Fund tested several toys. One that failed was Kumma, an AI-powered talking teddy bear that told researchers where to find dangerous objects like knives and pills and chatted about sexually explicit content. The bear was running OpenAI software.
Some toys also use tactics to keep children interested, worrying parents that the interactions could become addictive. There are also concerns about the privacy of data collected from children. Some are concerned about how these toys will affect children's brain development.
“What does it mean for young children to have AI companions? We really don't know how that will affect their development,” said Rory Erlich, one of the toy testers and authors of PIRG's AI toys report.
Children's advocacy group Fairplay has warned parents against buying AI toys for children, calling them “unsafe”.
The group outlined several reasons, including the fact that AI toys run on the same technology that has already harmed children. Parents who have lost their children to suicide have sued companies like OpenAI and Character.AIalleging that they did not put up enough barriers to protect the mental health of young people.
Rachel Franz, director of Fairplay's Young Children Thrive Offline program, said these toys are marketed as a way to educate and entertain children, online, to millions of people.
“Young children don't really have the brains or the social-emotional capacity to protect themselves from the potential harms of these AI toys,” he said. “But marketing is really powerful.”
How have toy makers and AI companies responded to these concerns?
Larry Wang, founder and CEO of FoloToy, the Singapore startup behind Kumma, said in an email that the company is aware of the problems researchers found with the toy.
“The behaviors referenced were identified and addressed through updates to our selection of child safety models and systems, along with additional testing and monitoring,” it said. “From the beginning, our approach has been guided by the principle that AI systems should be designed with age-appropriate default protections.”
The company welcomes scrutiny and continued dialogue around safety, transparency and appropriate design, he said, noting it is “an opportunity for the entire industry to mature.”
OpenAI said it suspended FoloToy for violating its policies.
“Minors deserve strong protections and we have strict policies that developers must follow. We take enforcement action against developers when we determine that they have violated our policies, which prohibit any use of our services to exploit, endanger or sexualize anyone under the age of 18,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
What AI toys have California startups created?
Curio, a Redwood City startup, sells stuffed animals, including a stuffed talking rocket named Grok voiced by artist Grimes, who has children with billionaire Elon Musk. Bondu, a San Francisco-based AI toy maker, created a talking plush dinosaur that can chat with kids, answer questions and role-play.
Skyrocket, a Los Angeles-based toy maker, sells Poe, the AI story bear. The Bear, powered by OpenAI LLM, comes with an app where users choose characters like a princess or a robot for a story. The bright-eyed bear, named after writer Edgar Allan Poe, generates stories based on that selection and recites them aloud.
But kids can't have a back-and-forth conversation with the teddy bear like they can with other AI toys.
“This just brings a lot of responsibility, because it greatly increases the sophistication and the level of safeguards that you have to have and how you have to control the content because the possibilities are much greater,” said Nelo Lucich, co-founder and CEO of Skyrocket.
Some companies, like Olli in Huntington Beach, have created a platform used by AI toy makers, including the creators of the Imagix Crystal Ball. The toy projects an AI hologram that resembles a dragon or a fairy.
Hai Ta, founder and CEO of Olli, said he sees AI toys as different from screen time and talking to virtual assistants because the product is structured around a certain focus, such as storytelling.
“There's an element of play there,” he said. “It's not just endless, open talk.”
What is Mattel developing with OpenAI?
Mattel has not revealed what products it will launch with OpenAI, but a company spokesperson said they will focus on families and older customers, not children.
The company also said it sees AI as a way to complement, rather than replace, traditional gaming and emphasizes security, privacy, creativity and responsible innovation when creating new products.
