Goodbye old-fashioned toys, the time for 'AI Toys' has come

The day will come when AI will choose us and not the other way around. Christmas is approaching and with it the spectre of 'next-gen' toys, those with artificial intelligence inside. The doubt is legitimate and not as a denial of the future but because of the need to do a lot more thinking about the consequences of giving an 'AI toy', as they are already calling it overseas, instead of a simple, but evergreen, soulless puppet.

For analysts at Future Marketing Insights, the smart toy market ended 2024 with $2.2 billion with forecasts of 14% growth between now and 2034. "Many people still don't understand the benefits of smart toys," they say, "with scepticism largely due to fears of data and privacy breaches." And so the success rate will depend not so much on the toy itself but on how the privacy of the data generated by its use will be preserved.

One example of all is Grok, designed to dialogue with children thanks to the integration of artificial intelligence. This product marks the debut of Silicon Valley-based start-up Curio, which chose to implement OpenAI's technology to create a new range of interactive toys. The choice of the name Grok, reminiscent of X's AI, is no coincidence: Claire Boucher, Elon Musk's ex and mother of his three children, is behind the project. Grok is also meant to be a way to reduce children's dependence on the screen of a smartphone or tablet. It does so behind a project that is too fuzzy from the point of view of the security of shared information. Suffice it to say that there are those among those who bought it who removed the internal part containing the chip, case and microphone. At that point, a real plush was better.

the WowWee MiP is an interactive, multifunctional robot toy, best known for its ability to self-balance on two wheels thanks to internal gyroscopes and a unique pendulum system. Its main interaction is through Gesture Sense technology, which allows it to respond to hand movements and swipes, enabling the user to control it in different directions without the need for a remote control. It communicates through its invented language ('MiPish') and offers seven different game modes that can be selected by turning one of its wheels, with the colour of the LED on its chest indicating the active mode, such as balance or dance play. One can also expand its functionality by downloading a free smartphone app that enables remote control. Newer versions, such as the MiP Coder or MiP Arcade, offer the possibility of programming sequences of movements. This function is an educational introduction to the concept of artificial intelligence, giving users the opportunity to 'instruct' the robot to behave as they wish.

From China comes Ebo Air S2, the sequel to a successful series of products from Enabot. Conceived partly as a webcam that moves around the house on two wheels and partly as a smart toy, it can enable a special 'skill' to make it converse with Alexa and ChatGpt. In the latter case, the use is practically the same as the AI voice chats we use on our smartphones, the difference being that here the robot talks to us and follows us around the house, just like a real domestic companion. What is worrying is the presence of the front-facing camera, necessary for use as a webcam, which combined with the artificial intelligence algorithms, could really jeopardise the privacy of those around. Completing the picture is the awareness of a company based in Shenzen and thus of a not always transparent manipulation of the data acquired.