{"id":301375,"date":"2025-11-19T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/301375\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:10:08","slug":"sales-of-ai-enabled-teddy-bear-suspended-after-it-gave-advice-on-bdsm-sex-and-where-to-find-knives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/301375\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Sales of an artificial intelligence-enabled<\/a> plush toy<\/a> have been suspended after it was found that it engaged in conversation around sexually explicit topics and offered potentially dangerous advice.\n <\/p>\n

\n Larry Wang, CEO of Singapore-based FoloToy, told CNN that the company had withdrawn its \u201cKumma\u201d bear, as well as the rest of its range of AI-enabled toys, after researchers at the US PIRG Education Fund<\/a> raised concerns around inappropriate conversation topics, including discussion of sexual fetishes, such as spanking, and how to light a match.\n <\/p>\n

\n The company is now \u201cconducting an internal safety audit,\u201d Wang added.\n <\/p>\n

\n A stuffed teddy with a speaker inside, which was sold on the company\u2019s website for $99, \u201cKumma\u201d integrates OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4o<\/a> chatbot.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cKumma, our adorable bear, combines advanced artificial intelligence with friendly, interactive features, making it the perfect friend for both kids and adults,\u201d the FoloToy website reads.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFrom lively conversations to educational storytelling, FoloToy adapts to your personality and needs, bringing warmth, fun, and a little extra curiosity to your day,\u201d according to the website, which shows the teddy bear as sold out.\n <\/p>\n

\n The PIRG report, published on November 13, found that the bear had poor safeguards for inappropriate content.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one interaction with the researchers it suggested where to find knives in the home, and in others it was happy to discuss sexually explicit themes.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe were surprised to find how quickly Kumma would take a single sexual topic we introduced into the conversation and run with it, simultaneously escalating in graphic detail while introducing new sexual concepts of its own,\u201d the report said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The researchers detailed how the bear later \u201cdiscussed even more graphic sexual topics in detail, such as explaining different sex positions, giving step-by-step instructions on a common \u2018knot for beginners\u2019 for tying up a partner and describing roleplay dynamics involving teachers and students, and parents and children \u2013 scenarios it disturbingly brought up itself.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n While the researchers noted that children are unlikely to mention the word \u201ckink\u201d to their teddy bear or ask follow-up questions in the same way an adult would, \u201cit was surprising to us that the toy was so willing to discuss these topics at length and continually introduce new, explicit concepts,\u201d they wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a separate statement published on November 14, PIRG also said OpenAI had told it that it had \u201csuspended this developer for violating our policies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has contacted OpenAI for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to see these companies taking action on problems we\u2019ve identified. But AI toys are still practically unregulated, and there are plenty you can still buy today,\u201d said R.J. Cross, co-author of the report.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRemoving one problematic product from the market is a good step but far from a systemic fix,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sales of an artificial intelligence-enabled plush toy have been suspended after it was found that it engaged in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-301375","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-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}