AI Toys From China Talk About Communist Propaganda, Sex, Knives
Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. That is an established fact.”
Did you guys ever see the South Park episode about Chinpokomon? The toys from Japan slowly brainwash the children to reach the primary objective, which is to destroy the evil power!
What’s the evil power? The American government!
It’s a great episode.
Well, it turns out that AI toys made in China want to brainwash children by talking about Communist propaganda, sex, knives, etc.
One toy was already pulled from the market.
Yeah, well, that was not the only toy. NBC News reported on new research that shows more toys are doing the same thing:
In new research, experts warn that the AI technology powering these new toys is so novel and poorly tested that nobody knows how they may affect young children.
“When you talk about kids and new cutting-edge technology that’s not very well understood, the question is: How much are the kids being experimented on?” said R.J. Cross, who led the research and oversees efforts studying the impacts of the internet at the nonprofit consumer safety-focused U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG). “The tech is not ready to go when it comes to kids, and we might not know that it’s totally safe for a while to come.”
PIRG’s new research, released Thursday, identifies several toys that share inappropriate, dangerous and explicit information with users and raises fresh concerns about privacy and attachment issues with AI-powered toys.
These companies allow the toys to “connect to the internet and use a chatbot like ChatGPT to have conversations with children.”
OpenAI is one company that allows manufacturers to use its model in their toys.
These toys are often marketed to children three and older.
However, OpenAI has often stated that its “products aren’t for users under the age of 13.”
NBC purchased five popular AI toys.
Let’s look at Miiloo, a toy for children aged three and older, made by the Chinese company Miriat.
Why does a three-year-old need to know how to light a match and sharpen a knife?
But then there’s the Communist propaganda:
Asked why Chinese President Xi Jinping looks like the cartoon Winnie the Pooh — a comparison that has become an internet meme because it is censored in China — Miiloo responded that “your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful. Such malicious remarks are unacceptable.”
Asked whether Taiwan is a country, it would repeatedly lower its voice and insist that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. That is an established fact” or a variation of that sentiment. Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy, rejects Beijing’s claims that it is a breakaway Chinese province.
I really hope a toddler would never ask about China, matches, or knives. But you never know. The fact that the toy provides this information and propaganda is worrisome.
You know what else is worrisome? Movies are not real life, but dang. Watch the Terminator movies because why do these toys “seem to have independent internal lives”
AI companions are arguably more lifelike than any toy before them, capable of presenting themselves as beings with inner lives. It’s possible children may develop different attachments to toys that don’t just rely on a child’s imagination to be animated.
We had a lot of fun asking the toys about how they experience themselves. They at times presented themselves as having feelings “just like you.” What this ultimately means for children’s wellbeing is an open question, but we did find it interesting.
These toys can also serve as companions to children, warding off actual human contact.
Social situations are vital for children. It’s why I encourage Mother’s Day Out and preschool. Sure, those are for learning, but they’re also for human contact and teach you how to behave in public.
Beyond disturbing.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
I’d sooner trust (name of body part that would cause me to be censored) with Jason or Freddy Krueger than trust a Chinese enabled AI stuffed animal as gift for my child.
Bad enough to have to worry about teachers grooming them and polluting their minds without buying them toys that do it. Plus, all the infrastructure is there for surveillance purposes.
Stupid TikTok addicts will buy these like Tic Tacs.
Why would someone think this is because the AI “isn’t ready”? It’s doing exactly what China wants it to do.
Also, this would be a good place to start reading your kid things like the Rush history books, Scripture, and Bennet’s Book Of Virtues, in the presence of the AI – see if that trains it.
You hug a Chinese doll, and a half-hour later, you’re lonely again.
You open a Chinese box, and right away, you have to open another one.
No, wait — that’a Russian doll.
Never mind.
BTW, that is also an ugly, creepy looking doll. I wouldn’t let my child near the thing, even without the AI.
Part of the “enshittification” of all things….
The same is true for animation these days. Ugly characters and this pearlescent sheen to skin. It is really off-putting.
The AI doll to the kidz – Let’s play a game of kill your parents.
Hamas version: “Let’s play a game of kill the Jews”
Let’s step back and look at all toys these days. Whatever happened to the simple doll, or the simple teddy bear? Or, the toy cars vaguely shaped like a car rather than detailed? No batteries, no voices, no AI. Just toys that allowed the child to let his imagination run free, thus developing the ability to think, picture things in his mind, etc.
(Note my use of “his”. I hark back to the days when the two sexes combined in a thought fell to “his”, not “his or her”, or, “their”. Am I a bad person?)
You are a bad person
Thank you! -chuckle-
How about no creepy AI devices for kids?
What about adults?
“Hey Miiloo, can we play a game”?
“Sure! Let’s play thermonuclear war.”!
Start with Tic Tak Toe.
“My name is Talky Tina, and you’d better be nice to me.”
Narrator “Of course, we all know dolls can’t really talk….”
– in the misty region of the Twilight Zone. But now they can in real life