AI toys for children misread emotions and respond inappropriately (opens in new tab)

(bbc.co.uk)

39 pointsfredley12d ago15 comments

15 comments

I heard a podcast ad for an AI toy once that said “your child and [the toy] will be having conversations you could never imagine”.

Truly baffling marketing, but I guess there are some parents that don’t realize the unpredictability of AI is what makes it so dangerous as a toy.

woodenbrain12d ago

Yeah, let's give our kids a toy that will tell them they can fly. and we thought drugs were a risk.

olivierestsage12d ago

You gotta be out of your damn mind to give your kid an AI toy

simmerup12d ago

Just give them an tablet with your preferred tech giants content algorithm instead

a9612d ago

So, basically a market that's 80% of the new parents.

dabbledash12d ago

'When one five-year-old said, "I love you," to the toy, it replied: "As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed."'

I'll take this over "I love you too!" What kind of person is giving an AI toy to a toddler?

manwe15012d ago

We got gifted a toy dog that could sing the alphabet, which was annoying, but acceptable. Its other stock phrase was ‘I love you’. We got rid of it pretty quickly.

bitwize12d ago

I gotta hand it to the toy, it was prepping the kid for today's social world.

> What kind of person is giving an AI toy to a toddler?

Grimes. When I read she's involved, I thought "that tracks". She's... a character. Think Björk, only not as smart, and a real pick-me girl for the techbro set. Anyway I don't think she entirely gets how humans work.

slater-12d ago

Grimes is to Bjork as Scott Stapp is to Bruce Springsteen.

tehjoker12d ago

Seems like an intervention aimed mainly at ensuring younger generations are accepting of AI products more than any real benefit to them

avgDev12d ago

As a parent, most parents are trash. I don't know why, maybe it's capitalism, laziness, low iq, poor education, poor role models, trying to make kids happy and allowing whatever they want? Idk.

The amount of terrible parenting I have witnessed in 5 years of my child's life....is...terrifying. I could write a book about.

One small story, we attend a kids party, the kids are 4 year old. This lady comes with a child, the child misbehaves terribly, I have to tell him not to do things because he is hurting other kids. The mother makes a statement, "I love these parties my kid can play and I can have pizza and hang out for 2 hours without having to watch him". You can't make this up.

The moral of the story is, that if AI will keep kids occupied many parents will allow it. They don't think, "will this have a negative impact on my child"?

jsbisviewtiful12d ago

> I could write a book about.

You should - Perhaps it can gain notoriety and start waking people up to their bad habits. I've witnessed so much terrible parenting both in public from strangers and from people I know. It's unfortunate how easy it is for anyone to have a kid, qualified or not.

the_snooze12d ago

AI powered toys are little more than techbros rushing to build Tom Riddle's diary.

josefritzishere12d ago

AI has been consistently bad at most of it's supplosed appliations. I for one welcome the AI crash. It's genuinely good at a few narrow functions. May sanity prevail in it's ashes.

cheevly8d ago

Such an epic self-burn. Nice!

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