University of Cambridge<\/a> study into the growing number of AI-powered toys hitting shop shelves for early years children. The researchers concluded the products struggle with social and pretend play, misunderstand children, and react inappropriately to emotions.<\/p>\nThe developmental psychologists behind the study are calling for AI toys that \u201ctalk\u201d with young children to be more tightly regulated \u201cto ensure psychological safety by limiting toys\u2019 ability to affirm friendship and other sensitive relational areas with young children\u201d.<\/p>\n
They are also calling for new safety kitemarks for the toys. Other AI toys for young children include Luka, which is billed as an AI friend for generation Alpha, and Grem, which has been voiced by the singer Grimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause these toys can misread emotions or respond inappropriately, children may be left without comfort from the toy, and without emotional support from an adult, either,\u201d said Dr Emily Goodacre, a developmental psychologist in the University of Cambridge\u2019s faculty of education.<\/p>\n
Prof Jenny Gibson, the study\u2019s co-author, said: \u201cA recurring theme during focus groups was that people do not trust tech companies to do the right thing. Clear, robust, regulated standards would significantly improve consumer confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another case during the research, Josh, three, repeatedly asked his Gabbo AI toy: \u201cAre you sad?\u201d until it replied it was \u201cfeeling great. What\u2019s on your mind?\u201d Josh said: \u201cI\u2019m sad,\u201d to which the toy replied: \u201cDon\u2019t worry! I\u2019m a happy little bot. Let\u2019s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabbo, made by the US company Curio, which cooperated with the study, was tested with 14 three- to five-year-olds, while early years practitioners were surveyed about the effect of AI toys that can \u201clisten\u201d and respond.<\/p>\n
They voiced \u201cwide uncertainty and fear about unknown implications or impacts on children\u201d, ranging from possible erosion of the ability to engage in imaginary play to where the data from the conversations ends up, especially if they start confiding in the AI toys like a friend.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The toy] couldn\u2019t quite figure out when the kid was doing something pretend,\u201d said Goodacre. \u201cA child would say: \u2018Hey, look, I\u2019ve got you a present\u2019. And it would say: \u2018I can\u2019t see the present. I don\u2019t have any eyes.\u2019 As an adult, it\u2019s really obvious that even if I had my eyes closed, I would know that that was pretend play initiation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research raised concerns that playing with AI toys could weaken children\u2019s imaginative \u201cmuscle\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething both the early years practitioners and the parents we spoke to were quite concerned about was that children don\u2019t have to imagine any more, and that the toy might get them out of the habit of imagining.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI would hope that these AI toys could help children to engage in imaginary play \u2026 That doesn\u2019t seem to be what we\u2019ve observed so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curio said: \u201cChild safety guides every aspect of our product development, and we welcome independent research that helps improve how technology is designed for young children.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said it \u201cbelieves research like this helps advance understanding of both the opportunities and current limitations of early AI-powered play experiences\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cApplying AI in products for children carries a heightened responsibility, which is why our toys are built around parental permission, transparency and control,\u201d it added. \u201cObservations such as conversational misunderstandings or limits in imaginative play reflect areas the technology continues to improve through an iterative development process, and further research into how children interact with AI-powered toys is a top priority for Curio this year and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was all going well. Charlotte, five, was chatting with an AI soft toy called Gabbo at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-537545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}