Cuddly and kinda creepy — AI toys are here

For readers who opened this email immediately after waking up from a five-year coma, AI is in almost everything now, and toys are no exception.

For those ready to jump right in: The smart/AI toy market is expected to grow from $2.6B to $9.7B in the next 10 years, with "screen-free" smart toys being a significant driver.

Many parents are concerned about their children's screen time, so AI-backed gadgets that can keep a kids’ eyes off an iPad are in high demand:

• Stickerbox makes a generative AI-powered device that prints stickers based on verbal prompts.
• Educational robot manufacturer Anki makes Cozmo, a pint-sized, mechanical buddy that teaches kids how to code. 

Plenty of these toys offer harmless fun or educational benefits while raising some eyebrows over privacy and data collection, but others are a bit more troubling. 

Like what?

Curio makes a line of plush toy chatbots that can learn kids' personalities, crack jokes, and have private conversations… which are all recorded, transcribed, and sent to parents.

Parents can then shape future toy-child communication, potentially turning their kid's favorite stuffed animal into a cuddly mind-control device. 

That's a bridge too far for some, including a New York Times reporter who ultimately removed her Curio toy's voicebox.

Other AI-supported toys have even more outrageous problems. 

• FoloToy, a Chinese company, recently had to recall a teddy bear chatbot after researchers successfully prompted it to explain some not-so-G-rated topics.

Ultimately, these gadgets offer a convenient solution to excessive screen time, but beg the question, "Are these toys actually better for kids?"

For now, the answer seems to be, "Who knows? We're going to see more of them, no matter what."