A.I. Kid's Toy Scrapped

Learning toy that stores children's voices canceled

Aristotle education toy violation of privacy

Mattel, a creator of a children's toy with A.I. capabilities, was forced to end production and stop selling its Aristotle toy with critics citing it as a violation of privacy.

The toy was designed to be connected with Alexa and have voice activation, as well as have a camera as a way for parents to monitor their children through a phone app. The device would interact with children, teaching them games and even languages. It was also being marketed to grow with children and offer more sophisticated learning experiences as time went on.

But the product was shuttered over criticism by a group of parents, children's caregivers, and education experts over the possibility of data collection occuring in children's bedrooms by corporations.

This data, to be fed into and bolster marketing algorithms, could have been used to sell to other businesses and used by Mattel to develop new products. At first, Mattel promised to encrypt the information, which would essentially be video and voice recordings of children playing with the toy, but later decided to scrap the project altogether after further evaluation.

The toy was to be released in 2018. Source