The New Wild West of AI Kids’ Toys

A great critic about Play Story 5in theaters this summer, is a green, frog-shaped children’s tablet called Lilypad, the new favorite magician. Pixar franchise. But if Pixar had an ear to the ground, they could have used an AI children’s toy instead.

AI toys are everywhere, they’re sold online as best friends for three-year-olds, and they’re still an unregulated industry. It’s easier than ever to convert an AI partner, thanks to modeling software and What’s the vibe?. In 2026, they became a way to promote cheap trinkets, lighting up trade shows like. CES, MWCand Toys & Games Exhibition in Hong Kong. By October 2025, there were over 1,500 AI companies registered in China, it’s Huawei Smart HanHan The luxury toy sold 10,000 units in China in its first week. Sharp put it PokeTomo is a talking AI toy going on sale in Japan this April.

But if you browse for AI toys on Amazon, you’ll find unique players like FoloToy, Alilo, Miriat, and Miko, the latter of which is said to have outsold. 700,000 units.

Courtesy of Miko

Consumer groups argue that AI toys, such as teddy bears, bunnies, sunflowers, creatures, and child-friendly “robots,” need stricter safeguards and regulations. FoloToy’s Kumma bear, courtesy of OpenAI’s GPT-4o when to be tested and the Public Interest Research Group’s The New Economy Grouphe gave instructions on how to light a match and find a knife, and discussed sex and drugs. Bunny of Alilo’s Smart AI talked about the leather flyers and “fun to play,” and when tested with NBC NewsMiriat’s Miiloo doll released the Chinese Communist Party’s talking points.

Age restrictions are just the tip of the AI ​​toys. We’re starting to see real research on the effects on children’s behavior. There is a problem when the technology does not work, as the guardrails allow it to talk about BDSM, but RJ Cross, director of consumer advocacy group PIRG of Our Online Life program, says it is possible. “Then there are problems when the technology is really good, like ‘I’m going to be your best friend,’ he says. Like Gabofrom the toy maker AI Curio. There are real social issues that need to be considered with these types of games, even if the game companies advertise their products as high quality, “free to play”.

How Chinese Children Play

Published in March, new Cambridge University Scholarships was the first to place a commercially available AI toy in front of a group of children and their parents and monitor their play. In early 2025, Jenny Gibson, professor of Neurodiversity and Developmental Psychology, and her research partner Emily Goodacre launched Curio Gabbo with 14 participating children, a mix of girls and boys, between the ages of 3 and 5.

Gabbo didn’t talk about drugs or say “I love you”. But researchers have found several problems related to developmental psychology and make recommendations for parents, policy makers, toy makers, and early childhood professionals.

First, the flexibility of the conversation. Goodacre says that up to the age of five, children are developing spoken language and communication skills, and even infants communicate and exchange. Gabbo’s change is not “human” and “absurd,” he says. Some children in the study were not bothered by this and continued to play. Some experienced confusion because the toy’s microphone does not listen attentively when speaking, interfering with the back and forth movement of, say, a counting game.