Back in the day, there was Teddy Ruxpin, the animated talking teddy bear. Cute and a friendly companion for children. Even before that, in 1937, Betsy Wetsy hit the market, allowing little girls to have a doll that wet it’s pants. But today, with the use of artificial technology, chatbot teddy bears have been created that will actually have conversations with your children. Sounds cute, right? Well, if A.I. is involved, things can get really dark and ugly, really, really fast. A safety group recently tested some of these chatbots only to discover that it would respond to any topic, regardless if it was inappropriate for a child. As you’ll hear in the video below, when they asked the A.I. driven teddy bear about ‘kink’, it proceeded to discuss the x-rated topic. How on earth did they not think ahead and put safety guards on it to prevent this? You can’t ask Alexa certain ‘sexual’ or adult themed questions (I’ve tried because I’m immature). That’s a safety guard and it’s there for a reason~
-Greg Browning / Morning Show Host / 104-5 WJJK
(source CBC News via YouTube)
Here’s a throwback commercial to the 80’s with a much, much safer and kid-friendly bear…
(source Mark Precilla via YouTube)
