This controversy centers on a landmark partnership between toy giant Mattel and OpenAI, the creator of the revolutionary ChatGPT, to develop a new line of AI-integrated products. Skeptics, however, warn that a new generation of AI-powered playthings creates unprecedented privacy risks. Such toys also pose a profound threat to children's emotional growth and encourage the formation of unnatural, one-way social bonds with machines.

The global smart toy market – a sector that includes everything from Wi-Fi-connected dolls to app-controlled race cars – is experiencing explosive growth. It has expanded from $14.11 billion in 2022 to $16.65 billion in 2023 and is projected to exceed $35 billion by 2027. Mattel – responsible for iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price – now aims to be at the forefront of this revolution.

The companies promise their collaboration will yield age-appropriate play experiences that emphasize safety and privacy, with the first product expected to be unveiled later this year. Specific details remain scarce, however. (Related: The rise of AI-powered toys: How Silicon Valley is rewiring childhood with synthetic companionship, deadened imagination.)

Unlike traditional toys, which a child animates with their own imagination, AI-enabled toys are designed to animate themselves. They use microphones and cameras to assess a child's emotional state through vocal inflection and facial expressions, attempting to build a relationship through seemingly personalized conversation. This dynamic, critics argue, is a reckless social experiment.

Children lack the cognitive capacity to fully distinguish between reality and artificial interaction. A toy that listens, remembers and converses without the friction and complexity of human relationships could fundamentally flatten a child's understanding of empathy, which is forged through real-world struggle, misunderstanding and negotiation.

Smart toys or spy toys?

Talking toys are not new. From the pre-recorded phrases of 1960s Chatty Cathy to the animatronic stories of Teddy Ruxpin, manufacturers have long sought to make playthings more interactive.

The 2015 release of "Hello Barbie," which recorded and uploaded children's conversations to cloud servers, marked a significant, albeit controversial, step forward. It was quickly demonstrated to be vulnerable to hacking.