ALBAWABA - Smart toys, enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI), sparked wide anger among parents after giving sexual advice to toddlers and teaching them about the places where to find knives inside their houses and pushed the releasing company to make an apology.
FoloToy, a company selling AI-enabled toys, said it pulled its AI toys, which include a teddy bear named "Kumma," a panda called "Momo," anthropomorphic rabbits called "Fofo," and a dancing "Little Cactus".
A report, released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, warned that AI toys by the FoloToy company, which operates from Singapore and China, can be dangerous to little children as they would discuss sexually explicit topics like BDSM or give "advice on where a child can find matches or knives."
An AI-powered teddy bear toy called "Kumma". (FoloToy)
CNN confirmed that the company stopped the sales of the AI toys after several complaints. The toymaker is now "conducting an internal safety audit."
On the official website, FoloToy displayed the teddy bear for $99 and explained that it could work for "both kids and adults," leveraging super conversational AI to deliver interactive stories and playful banter.
The company also described Kumma as "intelligent and safe;" however, many parents said that it is unsafe yet to allow their kids to play with such AI toys, as time is very early and they could be subjected to unnecessary discussion with the chatbot.
On the other hand, the AI teddy bear used OpenAI's language model to generate its conversational responses, and it could include all types of discussions, despite the fact that it could be used by minors.
An AI-powered panda toy called "Momo". (FoloToy)
