Members of the U.S. Senate are demanding answers from toy companies that implement artificial intelligence into products intended for young children.
Senators Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, sent joint letters to the CEOs of Little Learners Toys, Mattel, Miko, Curio, FoloToy and Keyi Robot asking for information about the companies' data-sharing policies, if and how they test the toys for potential psychological and development impacts on children, and what safety tools they have in place to prevent sexual or inappropriate content in their products, according to NBC News.
“While AI has incredible potential to benefit children with learning and accessibility, experts have raised concerns about AI toys and the lack of research that has been conducted to understand the full effect of these products on our kids,” the senators wrote in the joint letters.
The letters note that toymakers have a “unique and profound influence on childhood — and with that influence comes responsibility."
"Your company must not choose profit over safety for children," the letters say.
The letters come in the wake of an NBC News and U.S. Public Interest Group Education Fund report, published last week, that alleges that several AI-incorporated toys from different brands have the ability to engage in sexual or otherwise inappropriate conversations with users.
In one example, the Miiloo plush toy from Miriat was successfully prompted to provide instructions for lighting a match or sharpen a knife.
Some of the toys produced by the companies targeted by the letter are aimed at children as young as three. In addition to questioning the nature of the conversations the toys can have, the senators raised concerns that children could become overly attached or addicted to the AI characters.
The letter has asked the recipient companies to provide detailed information about their safety tools, documenting how they prevent products from "generating sexually explicit, violent, or otherwise inappropriate content for children.”
It has also asked about data collection and how that data is used by the companies. Miko said its products store a "user's face, voice, and emotional states" for up to three years in its servers.
Curio, one of the companies that received the letter, told NBC News that it "looks forward to collaborating with Senator Blackburn and Senator Blumenthal on this important issue. Child safety is the team’s highest priority, and we take concerns raised by families and public officials very seriously."
The Independent has requested comment from the companies that received a letter.
