New research from Public Interest Research Group and tests conducted by NBC News found that a wide range of AI toys have loose guardrails.

New research from Public Interest Research Group and tests conducted by NBC News found that a wide range of AI toys have loose guardrails.

A wave of AI-powered children’s toys has hit shelves this holiday season, claiming to rely on sophisticated chatbots to animate interactive robots and stuffed animals that can converse with kids.

Children have been conversing with stuffies and figurines that seemingly chat with them for years, like Furbies and Build-A-Bears. But connecting the toys to advanced artificial intelligence opens up new and unexpected possible interactions between kids and technology.

In new research, experts warn that the AI technology powering these new toys is so novel and poorly tested that nobody knows how they may affect young children.

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
    131·
    3 days ago

    Lol

    Yet another example of the hastily built, ill-conceived “future” being foisted upon us by corporations that want to brand you as an “AI vegan” (so you’re perceived as an extremist) if you’re not fully into it.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I don’t know how one can even avoid it? Especially if you work as white collar worker - it’s injected in just about every application on the job. This is why I think the bubble is almost guaranteed - it’s practically at the level of a spelling checker in that it’s a commodity that certainly has its uses, but you still cannot rely on it, and there is seemingly little to distinguish the various options. Also, there seems to be a limit to the amount of data they can feed these models.

      I think there is a business model to be had, but right now I’m getting very much the same kind of vibes we had just before the dot-com meltdown…just who is going to be paying out the kind of money that is implied by the current valuations of these companies? If the various players think they are going to be able to gouge the shit out of companies they got hooked on this slop, I would think most companies might flee to much cheaper, or even just host their own open source models instead. It doesn’t take much.