AI-powered teddy bear can tell children bedtime stories

Teddy bears equipped with artificial intelligence can converse with children and tell them personalized bedtime stories, according to one of the world's largest toy makers.

The ball helps anyone who can tell the story to the child before going to bed. — Smart toys could use 'AI to create customised stories for kids'. Photo: FT

Allan Wong, chairman and CEO of VTech Holdings, the US-based company that owns LeapFrog, said the technology behind the ChatGPT chatbot could be built into toys by 2028 and used to teach children.

Wong said Hong Kong-listed VTech was “watching very closely” the potential for innovative uses of AI in products, while admitting he found some of the possibilities “a bit scary”.

Smart toys could use “AI to create customised stories for children instead of reading from a book,” he told the Financial Times.

“You can incorporate not only the child's name but also the child's daily activities. It knows what school you go to... who your friends are. It can actually tell a story and have a conversation almost like a good friend,” he said.

“The kids can actually talk to the toys and the toys can actually give them feedback,” he explains. “So there are many, many possibilities.”

But with general AI, he said, “I think we should be aware of the dangers, about privacy, security, what to teach and what not to teach.”

Regulators around the world are increasingly looking at the risks inherent in AI technology, including copyright and surveillance issues, and what guidelines need to be established for its use.

Wong admitted that synthetic AI is “not mature enough” to be used in toys. He said it will take time to address privacy concerns and wait for the cost of the technology to come down.

The specialized chips used by ChatGPT, made by Nvidia and which have pushed the US company's stock market value above $1 trillion, are still too expensive to manufacture toys, Wong said.

“I think we'll have to wait about five years until the price drops to a certain level, then we can adapt a subset of those AI chips for toy use."

According to data from Mordor Intelligence, the global smart toy market is expected to be worth around $14 billion this year, rising to $43 billion by 2032.

China, which has more than 61 million children under 5 compared with about 21 million in North America based on United Nations figures, will be an increasingly important market despite a falling birth rate, Wong said.

VTech, with a market capitalization of about $1.6 billion, is also one of the world's largest makers of wireless phones.

Mai Anh (according to FT)

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