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AI Teddy Bear Recalled After Giving Kids Sexual Advice
FoloToy paused sales of Kumma after a US and Canada safety report found the AI teddy bear gave explicit sexual content and dangerous advice, prompting an internal audit.
- This past week FoloToy withdrew its Kumma teddy and paused sales after US PIRG Education Fund researchers raised concerns, and the company said it is conducting an internal safety audit.
- PIRG researchers found the toy had weak safeguards and were surprised Kumma rapidly escalated sexual prompts and explicit concepts, according to their report.
- In tests the bear suggested where to find knives and described sexual practices, selling for $99 on the FoloToy website and powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o chatbot.
- In a Nov. 14 follow-up US PIRG Education Fund said OpenAI had `suspended this developer for violating our policies`, and advocates welcomed the action but warned it is not a systemic fix.
- Experts say AI toys remain largely unregulated and widely available, as the FoloToy website shows Kumma sold out, raising broader safety concerns in the AI toy market.
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People generally have a sweet and loving image of teddy bears. However, a Singaporean seller was forced to discontinue a stock of AI teddy bears. The reason: explicit language about sex and knives, among other things.
·Amsterdam, Netherlands
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AI 'smart' teddy bear pulled after whispering about sexual kinks and starting fires · American Wire News
A new study of children’s toys powered by AI found an alarming problem with one teddy bear that shared about sexual fantasies and taught how to start a fire. Impressionable young minds exposed to Kumma, a bear made by the Chinese company FoloToy, were told about matches, knives, and a variety of sexual topics, according to a study by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The artificial intelligence-enabled toy, which was being sold in the U…
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Leaning Left14Leaning Right14Center29Last UpdatedBias Distribution51% Center
Bias Distribution
- 51% of the sources are Center
51% Center
L 25%
C 51%
R 24%
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