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AI Barbie? Mattel is gambling with ‘perfect’ toy companions
A toy that never disappoints might just create adults who can’t handle disappointment at all.
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Mattel has not specified how its toys will incorporate AI but there is a paradoxical risk that its products become too good.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Parmy Olson
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When Mattel announced last week that it was preparing to “bring the magic of AI” to its toys through a partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, there was predictable outcry on the risks to privacy and children’s imaginations.
The reasons are obvious, as tech platforms have sucked up our personal data while AI tools are poised to erode critical thinking. But I am less concerned about what AI playmates can do to imaginative play and data protection than what they will do to kids’ social skills, based on my own experience of bringing an AI toy into my home.
