It’s Not Child’s Play
In their letters to Santa Claus, children around the world are asking for robots or dolls that interact using AI. Are we sure we know how to choose the right gifts?
It’s Christmas Day. A child unwraps his gift, a brand-new robot. It’s not one of those tin ones from the 60s, nor does it resemble a toy like Teddy Ruxpin or Furby (unforgettable memories for kids of the 80s and 90s). This is a robot that, thanks to artificial intelligence, can hold a conversation. The robot asks the child about his life, where he lives, how he feels. The toy is equipped with a camera and microphone, can record and remember the child’s facial expressions, words, and games. Playtime data is stored in the cloud and used to process information about how the child is growing compared to his chronological age. Transcripts of what the child says are forwarded to ChatGPT for processing. Indeed, this is not a science fiction tale with a Christmas theme, but one of the scenes we may witness in our homes in a few days. In the year when the world discovered the potential of artificial intelligence (which can be used, for example, to find the right gift for that friend who “has everything” or to understand how to deliver gifts faster), the multiplication of AI Toys, toys that use AI to interact with children, is happening. Like Moxie, the robot designed for children aged 5 to 10 years and which has been “designed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive development through daily play-based learning and engaging content”.
In the not-so-distant future, there will be a robot or robot teddy bear reading bedtime stories to our children. And it won’t be just any story: it will be a tailor-made fairy tale, thanks to AI, based on everything the toy knows about the child (things he loves, things he’s afraid of, his little secrets). Toys equipped with artificial intelligence will be able to convince a child to stop throwing tantrums (or at least try), entertain him, and teach him new things.
It sounds fantastic, but something can go wrong.
To work best, these toys must collect as much data as possible about the child (and maybe also about siblings, friends, and parents), store it on a cloud infrastructure, and communicate it to the developers of the generative artificial intelligence solutions used for interaction. In short, a “smart” toy is a friend who — by contract — will not keep to itself what we tell it.
In short, a chatbot robot is not a gift to be given without much thought (read here). It is necessary to understand how it works and what its components are (microphone, camera), read the privacy policy, and not choose based solely on price, because an insecure cloud could be breached, leading to the loss of data privacy of our children and loved ones. Not to mention that the algorithm could have biases and hallucinations, providing our children with misleading or, at best, incorrect information. Choosing the right gift becomes even more difficult. For those who want to avoid mistakes, it is essential to study and research. The Italian Data Protection Authority has long published a guide with some tips for buying smart toys. The Mozilla Foundation, on the other hand, has launched an initiative called “Privacy not included”, in which it flags all the products concerning personal data protection. It’s not surprising that — in the list of the (most naughty) Christmas gifts of 2023 — Moxie is mentioned, along with other toys that use AI.
After all, the risks of this “toy” seem to be understood by Moxie’s own producers who, in the privacy policy, ask parents to teach their children to “never provide personal information”. Yes, it’s written just like that. Too bad the robot is sold as a game to which “your child will talk like a friend”, a game that is designed to work better the more information is provided by its users. Are we sure we can teach emotional intelligence while instilling distrust towards one’s friends? And then which child of that age is able to understand the concept of not providing personal data? Should we perhaps also give the child a course on data protection?
Perhaps, for this Christmas, there are still easier but no less appreciated gifts. Gradually, maybe after international norms and standards are adopted, we will also learn how to buy and use AI to ensure the safety of the little ones and their data.
