AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company's stuffed animals. Earlier this month, Joseph Thacker's neighbor mentioned to him that she'd preordered a couple of stuffed dinosaur toys for her children. She'd chosen the toys, called Bondus, because they offered an AI chat feature that lets children talk to the toy like a kind of machine-learning-enabled imaginary friend. But she knew Thacker, a security researcher, had done work on AI risks for kids, and she was curious about his thoughts.

Experts question whether FoloToy's one-week safety review adequately addressed serious concerns about its Kumma AI teddy bear's inappropriate responses to kids.

'Children could become attached to a bot rather than a person or imaginary friend, which could hurt their development.' 'Children could become attached to a bot rather than a person or imaginary friend, which could hurt their development.' Advocates are fighting against the $16.7bn global smart-toy market, decrying surveillance and a lack of regulation As the holiday season looms into view with Black Friday, one category on people's gift lists is causing increasing concern: products with artificial intelligence. The development has raised new concerns about the dangers smart toys could pose to children, as consumer advocacy groups say AI could harm kids' safety and development. The trend has prompted calls for increased testing of such products and governmental oversight.

Plus: OpenAI and Nvidia's circular deals are drawing some heat The US Department of Energy appears poised to terminate funding for a pair of large carbon-sucking factories that were originally set to receive more than $1 billion in government grants, according to a department-issued list of projects obtained by and circulating among federal agencies. One of the projects is the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub, a facility that Occidental Petroleum's 1PointFive subsidiary planned to develop in Kleberg County, Texas. The other is Project Cypress in Louisiana, a collaboration between Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom. AI toys are all the rage in China--and now they're appearing on shelves in the US too Kids have always played with and talked to stuffed animals. But now their toys can talk back, thanks to a wave of companies that are fitting children's playthings with chatbots and voice assistants. It's a trend that has particularly taken off in China: A recent report by the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association and JD.com predicts that the sector will surpass ¥100 billion ($14 billion) by 2030, growing faster than almost any other branch of consumer AI.

AI toys are all the rage in China--and now they're appearing on shelves in the US too Competition is heating up, with Mattel and OpenAI expected to launch a product for kids this year. Kids have always played with and talked to stuffed animals. But now their toys can talk back, thanks to a wave of companies that are fitting children's playthings with chatbots and voice assistants. It's a trend that has particularly taken off in China: A recent report by the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association and JD.com predicts that the sector will surpass ¥100 billion ($14 billion) by 2030, growing faster than almost any other branch of consumer AI. According to the Chinese corporation registration database Qichamao, there are over 1,500 AI toy companies operating in China as of October 2025. One of the latest entrants to the market is a toy called BubblePal, a device the size of a Ping-Pong ball that clips onto a child's favorite stuffed animal and makes it "talk."

'Let's talk about something fun!' Grem the AI chatbot toy. 'Let's talk about something fun!' Grem the AI chatbot toy. 'I love you too!' My family's creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy The cuddly chatbot Grem is designed to'learn' your child's personality, while every conversation they have is recorded, then transcribed by a third party. It wasn't long before I wanted this experiment to be over ... 'I'm going to throw that thing into a river!" my wife says as she comes down the stairs looking frazzled after putting our four-year-old daughter to bed. To be clear, "that thing" is not our daughter, Emma*. It's Grem, an AI-powered stuffed alien toy that the musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, helped develop with toy company Curio. Designed for kids aged three and over and built with OpenAI's technology, the toy is supposed to "learn" your child's personality and have fun, educational conversations with them. It's advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is ...

I hate the Rabbit R1. It's yet another sign that standalone AI gadgets, like the Humane AI Pin, are fundamentally useless devices meant to attract hype and VC funding without benefitting users at all. It's like trying to build a skyscraper on quicksand: Today's AI models are great for parlor tricks, but they're ultimately untrustworthy. How do you create a device around that? The Rabbit R1's big selling point has been its "large action model," or LAM, which can supposedly understand what you say and get things done.

Are artificial intelligence-powered toys the next big thing or the next cybersecurity nightmare? Here's how to ensure your kids play it safe.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be found everywhere these days, from the smartphones in our pockets to the microwaves in our kitchen. So, it only follows that AI-powered children's toys are reaching new heights of popularity. However, when it comes to kids' toys, how smart is too smart? With the smart toy market expected to reach $54 billion by 2024 (around £42bn / AU$76bn), manufacturers are increasingly developing and releasing toys that can connect to the internet and learn as children interact with them. As there currently isn't any official'mark of quality' for AI devices (although the Foundation for Responsible Robots are making headway in this area), it's no wonder that people are concerned about the safety and ethics of giving robots to children as playthings.

At kindergarten, 3-year-old Seven Kong has his schoolmates to play with, but at home his best friend is a kidney-shaped, lime-coloured android named BeanQ. The two spend hours together, with Seven peppering the robot with a continuous stream of questions. The green android responds with similarly simple words and phrases, alongside an array of different emoji facial expressions displayed on a large screen, which serves as its face. Recommended to the family by a friend, the android is intended to be an early educator, sharing some of the parental burden. "When we get really busy, BeanQ can be there keeping him entertained," said Seven's mother Liu Qian, 33, who is a work-at-home mom living in Beijing.