American toy company, Skyrocket, is launching an AI-powered teddy bear that reads bedtime stories to children. Dubbed ‘Poe the AI Story Bear’, the plushy bear uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT4o to create tailored stories based on ideas that the kids add to the toy’s app, Skyrocket announced Tuesday.
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Once a story is created, Poe will then read it. According to the company, the bear uses technology from AI startup Eleven Labs to make its voice sound natural. It will eventually tell stories in 20 languages, Skyrocket added. Poe will be part of the Los Angeles-based company’s collection of AI-based toys under the PLAi brand (read “play”). The teddy is expected to go on sale in August starting at $50.
It is not all rosy with ‘Poe the AI Story Bear’
CNET’s tech reporter, Bridget Carey, tested the teddy bear on her children, who are five and eight years old. She says that Poe can be prompted by making a simple voice request, and generating a two- to three-minute story took around 30 seconds.
Poe is not connected to the internet and does not have microphones or cameras. Instead, the toy runs via an application that can be installed on a tablet or phone. “However, the safety risk here is not knowing what words an AI chatbot will serve to an impressionable child,” Carey wrote.
According to her, Skyrocket says it has put several “filters and guardrails in the programming to keep a story appropriate for kids.” The bear has a few words that may be considered potentially problematic on a block list, including the word cancer, Carey said.
She also pointed out that the vocabulary used by the toy to narrate stories was too hard for kids. She accused “ChatGPT of overusing thesaurus.” For example, Carey prompted the bear via the app to create a time-travel story about a princess, a prince, and a thief. In part, here is what Poe generated:
“The once vibrant kingdom had fallen under a dark curse by the evil Prince Barron. His sorcery summoned shadowy wraiths to haunt the land, chilling the hearts of Allara’s people.
“A ghastly apparition materialized beside her, the vengeful spirit of Queen Avelina, Allara’s ancestor from centuries past. “The phantom hour draws near,” Avelina’s raspy voice warned. “The stars aligned to undo this ancient wrong.”
Image credits: Skyrocket
AI needs to do more to replace human storytellers
Despite Skyrocket’s efforts to create the perfect AI-powered teddy bear companion for children, Poe may still be a long way from replacing human story-readers for many reasons. Carey spoke about the “limits put on the length of a story” because using AI to create stories was too expensive.
“Generating AI stories is server intensive, and the longer the story, the more it would cost Skyrocket. Stories I generated ran for about two or three minutes,” she added.
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If launched, Poe will compete with already existing AI toys, including the Miko Smart Companion that plays chess with children and the Curio AI Toys range.
The new wave of AI dolls is said to be inspired by the American old-time doll line, Teddy Ruxpin, which used to make movements in sync with sounds played on the radio. It also had a book to go with it.
