The 1990s saw the launch of many iconic gadgets, toys and games that many people are still holding onto for a taste of nostalgia. But the memories from your childhood may also be worth a fortune. Pokemon cards, Furbies and a Kawasaki-branded instrument are among the decades old products that have sold for thousands of dollars at auction. Even more, a rare Super Mario 64 game fetched over one million dollars at a sales event that made it the most expensive video game in history. Below are a few valuable 1990s toys that may be collecting dust in your home. The Sax-A-Boom is a children's toy instrument which had a resurgence of popularity after Jack Black used it at live Tenacious D concerts The Sax-A-Boom is a children's toy instrument which had a resurgence of popularity after Jack Black used it at live Tenacious D concerts.

In January, 1999, the Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency had issued a memo on its intranet with the subject "Furby Alert." According to the Post, the memo decreed that employees were prohibited from bringing to work any recording devices, including "toys, such as'Furbys,' with built-in recorders that repeat the audio with synthesized sound." That holiday season, the Furby, an animatronic toy resembling a small owl, had been a retail sensation; nearly two million were sold by year's end. They were now banned from N.S.A. headquarters. A worry, according to one source for the Post, was that the toy might "start talking classified." Tiger Electronics, the makers of the Furby, was perplexed.

For the past few decades, robots have been confined to the factory floor. Robotic arms, concealed in big industrial buildings, weld cars, inspected items on conveyor belts and build complicated things. This is all well hidden behind closed doors. And for good reason -- industrial robots are bulky, limited, and sometimes dangerous. As robot tech and AI have advanced, robots have exploded into pedestrian spaces.

Artificial intelligence in society is a controversial debate that is only just unravelling. Currently far from consensus, this modern debate is explored in'Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other' (Turkle, 2012), on which the next few posts will be based. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the creation of intelligent machines (Nilsson, 2009), yet is this truly possible? This post will focus on healthcare and childhood entertainment to address the potential harm to our psychological health and close relationships at the hands of AI. Turkle proposes that AI currently cannot, and should not, replace human connections, an opinion justified below.

The arrival of The Mitchells vs. the Machines on Netflix feels like the detonation of a confetti bomb--it's a colorful, inventive, and all-around delightful movie. In fact, as my colleague Sam Adams wrote for Slate, it's the first great animated movie of 2021. Directed by Mike Rianda and co-directed by Jeff Rowe, the movie stars Abbi Jacobson as Katie, a girl about to head to college, and Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, and Rianda respectively as her father, mother, and younger brother Aaron, all of whom join her on a road trip in an attempt at a last hurrah before she flies the coop. That trip hits a bit of a road bump, however, when a robot uprising threatens the entire human race. One of the biggest--and funniest--set pieces of the film involves the Mitchell family having to fight a horde of Furby dolls.

From intelligent personal assistants to home robots, technology once thought of as a sci-fi dream is now embedded into everyday life. But this leap from dream to reality didn't happen overnight. There is no one'eureka' moment in a field as vast as AI. Rather, the technology we enjoy today is a result of countless milestones in artificial intelligence, delivered by countless forgotten people across a countless range of projects. So, let's pay homage to some of that work.

The'Lovot' could be the one robot humans don't need to be afraid of. A fuzzy, wide-eyed companion, the Lovot was designed simply to follow its owners around, give plenty of hugs and recognize their face. Japanese startup GrooveX first unveiled the Lovot in December and is now showing off the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They say the Lovot, which gets its name by combining the words love and robot, exists to'make you truly happy.' The Lovot, which gets its name by combining the words love and robot, exists to'make you truly happy.'

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.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Finding the best gift for your tiny tyke is anything but easy. Do you go with the creepy (possibly sentient) toy or the classic toddler trucks? With so many options available these days, the whole process is really overwhelming.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Don't panic, but Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro has a new very (but not completely) lifelike robot child, which is supposed to be around 10 years old. Okay, panic if you want to.