āIām going to throw that thing into a river!ā my wife says as she comes down the stairs looking frazzled after putting our four-year-old daughter to bed.
To be clear, āthat thingā is not our daughter, Emma*. Itās 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 OpenAIās technology, the toy is supposed to ālearnā your childās personality and have fun, educational conversations with them. Itās advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is part of a growing market of AI-powered toys.
When I agreed to experiment on my childās developing brain, I thought an AI chatbot in cuddly form couldnāt be any worse for her than watching Peppa Pig. But I wasnāt prepared for how attached Emma became to Grem, or how unsettlingly obsequious the little alien was.
Pretty sure thereās multiple movies on why this shouldnāt exist
Itās advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time
vaping and e-cigarettes were initially advertised as a way for cigarette smokers to quit.
And it did help me quit tobacco, I can hardly stand to smoke a whole cig anymore. But in turn it destroyed my gut, so now I use pouches. Weāll see how these fuck me up, probably rot my gums or something.
I certainly wouldnāt trust an AI friend from Grimes for numerous reasons.
You can see how Curioās website could be mistaken for satire. The āgirlā in the promotional video is Grimes, who has prominent āalien scarā tattoos and is inexplicably kneeling next to a knife.
I had to reread that part
How this is just a sidenote in the article is beyond me. Why did they intentionally place a knife there? So messed up.
Iād say that this articleās arguments on not letting a child alone with an AI chatbot are pretty compelling. I think parents should read the article, specifically parents that donāt know much about AI.
