Ai Plush Toys promises screen-free play for children-but at what cost?

The company Curio, located in Redwood City, California, brings a new type of toy on the market: chatbots wrapped in stuffed animals. The founders, Misha Sallee and Sam Eaton, created Plushies-Grem, Grok and Gaboo, with each of them with a Wi-Fi-Bus hidden inside. This voting box connects the toy with a language model for artificial intelligence (AI) designed to talk to young children. These toys, priced at $ 99 each, join a growing number of other objects marketed to children. This trend will expand as Openai has a partnership with Mattel to develop AI-powered products based on popular brands such as Barbie and Ken, said Amanda Hess of The New York Times. The new playing time Curio promotes its products as an alternative to screen time, and is appealing to parents who are busy and wants to keep their children of tablets and telephone screens. The co-founder of the company, Eaton, described the Plushies as a ‘sidekick’ that could make children play more stimulating, which free parents to put their children in front of a TV. However, Hess questions this premise. While children are already talking to their toys, the AI plushions add a layer of complexity. During a demonstration, Hess marks on a bizarre conversation with one of the toys named Grem, which suggested a game of “I Spy”, though he couldn’t see. She also points out that the irony of these toys is an alternative to screens when working on a similar technological basis. From the screen to Sidekick, the idea of a mechanical friend is already known for children, because when they watch television, their stories about artificially intelligent sidekicks and their wonderful deeds are served. TV series such as “Adventure Time” and “Sesame Street,” contain characters such as BMO and Smartie who are personal technological devices that help the main characters. Hess also cited the character Toodles of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” as an excellent example. Compared to older Disney drawing pictures where physical objects pose the challenges for Mickey and friends, Toodles has in a vibrant tablet that immediately solves every challenge with ‘Mouseketools’. This tendency teaches children that the answer to every human problem is a voice-activated command and that the ultimate end point for their curiosity is within a device, she argued. By bringing these characters into the physical spaces of children, in the form of cuddly toys, the terrifying ghost of “the screen” was darkened. Yet the playing time is still linked to a technological leash, as the toy of the toy with a child is run back to a large language model, she said. Privacy and control in a cozy package other than the psychological aspects of using an AI-powered toy, these products also raise concerns about privacy and parental control. For example, Curio ensures that each conversation is transcribed with his chatbots and sent to the Guardian’s phone. The company says that these talks are not retained for other purposes, although the privacy policy illustrates all the different roads that a child’s data can take, also opens to the third-party businesses and perplexity. The author also questions what happens when the transition object of a child, such as a security stuffed animal or blanket, is no longer a safe space for private thoughts, but a source of supervision and an instrument of parental influence. Hess concludes her exploration by removing the voice box from the Plushie and turning it back into a simple stuffed animal. When her children find it, they invest their own imaginative games, and confirm her theory that the most magical toys are that that does not need a voice box at all.