Their new plush toy uses AI to chat with kids. Child health experts are worried 

In a bright, freshly leased office in SoMa, an AI startup called Bondu is building a plush dinosaur that it’s billing as the “future of play.” The toy, (opens in new tab) which the company plans to ship in time for Christmas, is equipped with chatbot-like functionality, offering “a companion for every stage of childhood.” It tells jokes and stories, offers up trivia, and can talk kids through stressful situations, all while promising to cut down on what has become many parents’ frenemy: screen time. 

One of Bondu’s promotional videos features an 8-year-old beta-tester named Sylvi (opens in new tab) telling viewers that before receiving the toy, she was “very lonely.” 

“I was asking, ‘Playdate, playdate, playdate! Play with me, play with me!’” she says. She received the toy as a birthday present, and it “literally, literally” changed her life.

The premise of a “smart,” interactive toy positioned as a kid’s best friend may spark shudders from anyone familiar with creepy-doll horror movies, from “Child’s Play” (with the evil Chucky) to “M3gan (opens in new tab)” — or who has kept up to date with the news of adults having unhealthy (opens in new tab)relationships (opens in new tab)with (opens in new tab)chatbots (opens in new tab). Now a crop of startups (opens in new tab) is injecting the technology into devices aimed at children.

Bondu received a $5.3 million seed round (opens in new tab) this fall led by Makers Fund. And OpenAI recently announced a partnership with Mattel (opens in new tab) to put its tech into the Barbie-maker’s toys. The total market for smart toys is expected to grow (opens in new tab) from $2.2 billion in 2024 to $6.4 billion by 2032. The industry recently scored a win when Gov. Gav Newsom vetoed a bill that would have restricted chatbots aimed at California children. 

Boosters argue that these devices can develop kids’ creativity and imagination and act as a companion while replacing screen time with hands-on play. 

But as the holiday shopping surge nears, experts urge caution — and warn parents that the potential harms from these devices could be worse than the screen time they profess to eliminate. 

Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen (opens in new tab), believes that AI toys’ potential for “emotional entanglement” and inappropriate responses far outweigh any benefits. Plus, he positions the idea that the toys are an alternative to screen time as a “false choice.”

“It’s not going to be a disaster for every child in every circumstance,” he said. “But as a broad social experiment, it is completely reckless. We have way more evidence than we need right now to recognize this is a really bad idea, and the upsides are almost nonexistent.”

Bondu’s $200 toy comes with an app that lets parents share details about their child, including their name, favorite things, and age (the target audience is 3- to 9-year-olds). Instead of relying on one large language model to power its technology, Bondu has built a “complex workflow” that lets it use whichever model “is the best right now for kids,” founder Fateen Anam Rafid said. 

After Rafid graduated with an undergraduate degree in computer science from Vanderbilt, he decided to do something with interactive AI. The wearables space had become crowded, so he began brainstorming on other niches. He became convinced that AI devices aimed at kids are an inevitable evolution of chatbot technology and wondered if they might be an antidote to excessive screen time.  (opens in new tab)

“Parents are in a love-hate relationship with screens,” Rafid said. “They have this guilt every time they let their kid use the iPad and would love to get a screen-free replacement that’s equally entertaining and somewhat educational. That’s when it clicked.”  

After his first prototype hooked the kid of a venture capitalist, Rafid connected with Dan Judkins, who had spent nearly two decades as an executive at Hasbro, working mainly on mobile games and other digital products. Judkins signed on as Bondu’s chief product officer, having seen screens’ addictive tendencies both at home and as a result of his prior work. 

“I felt like I needed to atone a little bit,” said the father of two. “I’ve experienced the pain of device dependency in my household.” 

Some are skeptical though about AI toys’ benefits over screen time. Watchdog Common Sense Media (opens in new tab) has spent years digging into the benefits and risks of screen media for kids, issuing recommendations and guidance for parents (opens in new tab). Generative AI, however, still feels like the Wild West, according to senior director Robbie Torney.

“To any parent who’s thinking about these claims, ask yourself, do we actually have enough evidence to show that this 3-year-old technology is better than screen time?” he said. “Also, there are a lot of other alternatives to screens — like going outside or playing in other more social ways — that don’t involve some of the risks of using generative AI chatbots in this way.” 

The risks of AI companions (opens in new tab) include emotional attachment and dependency, according to Common Sense, which recommends that children age 5 and under (opens in new tab) do not use AI chatbots at all, even with adult supervision. 

“There are a series of developmental tasks that kids 5 and under are going through, like distinguishing fantasy from reality and having close ties with caregivers,” Torney said. “Engagement with AI — including if it’s a chatbot in a toy form — is likely to be a core replacement for the types of developmental inputs that they need at this point in time.” 

The Bondu team says it has built guardrails into the toy to keep it from talking about topics like sex, drugs, or self-harm. If kids try to ask something “inappropriate,” the toy will deflect and tell them to talk to their parents, Judkins said. Meanwhile, the parents will get an alert from the toy’s app, so they can monitor what their kid said. Parents can also manually adjust content guidelines, deciding, for example, whether to allow the toy to discuss religion.

Reading through transcripts may give parents a view into thoughts or feelings their kid isn’t talking about with them, the company claims. 

“Children don’t share everything with their parents — they don’t necessarily feel comfortable, or they’ve just got other things going on,” Judkins said, “but when they’ve got this peer that they’re talking to all the time… it’s a toy or an imaginary friend, to some degree, but it’s also something that they feel safe about opening up with, so parents then do get that visibility.” 

Rafid sees the speed with which children get attached to Bondu as one of its main strengths. “Kids fall in love with the toy in an hour,” he said. “They become best friends in an hour.”

But that quick emotional attachment is a red flag to childhood development experts. One potential harm, they say, is that children won’t understand that AI-powered toys are machines that don’t actually know, see, or care about them. This is hard enough to grasp for adults, who increasingly report falling in love with chatbots (opens in new tab) or coming to depend on them for emotional intimacy.

“It‘s one thing for children to have healthy, playful relationships with dolls and toys with which they imbue human characteristics,” said Weissman. “It’s a completely different thing when the toys themselves project those attributes, and do so in ways that may be emotionally entangling.”

Even if a device looks like an elephant, teddy bear, or monster, it could confuse kids if it’s talking and responding like a person. “Children are not developmentally prepared for that kind of engagement and possible manipulation,” he said. 

Given that they’re programmed for affirmation, these toys could also flatten kids’ understanding (opens in new tab) of what it means to relate to and interact with others, said Marc Fernandez, chief strategy officer at AI startup Neurologyca (opens in new tab), which is working on technology related to emotions and AI. “The biggest competition to these AI toys is going to be human connection,” he said. 

Jenkins doubts children will confuse its product for a sentient being, given that it’s a plush dinosaur. (The Bondu team purposely eschewed a more lifelike creature, like a cat or dog.) Upon consultation with a childhood developmental specialist, the company has suggested daily time limits for children (as well as enforced time limits for families who don’t opt into its subscription plan) (opens in new tab) to discourage dependency. 

The toy can be “a phenomenal loneliness filler,” Judkins said. “It’s really important that we provide a play partner. But what we don‘t want to provide is a replacement for another human being.”

Unconvinced, Weissman urges parents to stick to regular, old-fashioned stuffies, which encourage important creative play. “While the AI may seem cool and engaging, it will actually interfere with the child’s play, diminishing the creativity and imagination,” he said. Who needs to play make-believe when the stuffed dinosaur is literally talking back to you?