They're Stuffed Animals, They're Also AI Chatbots

More from the article ...

... Each of its three smiling plushies has a back zipper pocket that hides a Wi-Fi-enabled voice box, linking the character to an artificial intelligence language model calibrated to converse with children as young as 3.

Eaton plunked Grem on a conference table and positioned it to face me. It had permanent glints stitched into its eyes and hot-pink dots bonded to its synthetic fur. "Hey, Grem," Eaton said. "What are the spots on your face?"

A bright mechanical trill originated from Grem. "Oh, those are my special pink dots," it said. "I get more as I grow older. They're like little badges of fun and adventure. Do you have something special that grows with you?"

I did. "I have dots that grow on me, and I get more as I get older, too," I said.

"That's so cool," said Grem. "We're like dot buddies." ...

More from the article ...

... I flushed with self-conscious surprise. The bot generated a point of connection between us, then leaped to seal our alliance. Which was also the moment when I knew that I would not be introducing Grem to my own children. ...

What might the ramifications of possibly having an open microphone in one's house, sending everything said to some server somewhere?

imo, this may not end well ...

OpEd: Puny humans are no match for AI
www.computerworld.com

... New research shows how easily manipulated people are by AI tools, especially when they're designed to manipulate. Knowledge is the only defense.

We live in a new age of artificial intelligence (AI), which is making everything better. And worse.

AI is transforming everyday life by improving diagnostics, personalizing medicine and learning, detecting fraud, automating tasks, optimizing operations, supporting smarter decision-making, reducing costs, enhancing productivity, and enabling innovations like self-driving cars, predictive analytics, and virtual assistants.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that large language model (LLM)-based generative AI (genAI) shows potential in the realm of tricking, conning or persuading people at scale with an efficiency that goes beyond what people can do on their own.

The first step in defending against AI's potential to manipulate the masses is to know what's possible. Research published in the past two weeks begin to paint a picture of what can be done. ...

@#12 ... What if it hears you rubbing one out? ...

Yeah, that's my concern.

It seems to be an open microphone in the house, sending what it hears to a server in ~who knows where.~

Would you want an open microphone in your house recording everything it hears?

Think about that.