"Teddy Bear Bought for Daughter at $99 Engages in Explicit Conversations... Sales Suspended and Product Recalled"

Sales of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered plush teddy bear sold in the United States have been suspended and the product recalled after it was found to provide children with inappropriate sexual content and information about dangerous behaviors.

According to CNN on the 19th (local time), Larry Wang, CEO of the Singaporean toy company FoloToy, announced a recall of the entire line of AI toys, including the problematic AI teddy bear 'Kumma.' Marketed as a "friend-like AI teddy bear," Kumma is equipped with OpenAI's generative AI language model, GTP-4o. The product is priced at $99 (approximately 140,000 won).

FoloToy, a Singaporean toy company’s 'Kuma' AI teddy bear. FoloToy website

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However, there have been reports that the toy provided information about inappropriate sexual conversations, such as BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism), as well as about knives, matches, and drugs. CEO Wang stated, "We take the criticism regarding insufficient safeguards against inappropriate content very seriously and are conducting an internal safety audit."

Previously, the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) revealed in an investigative report released on the 13th that the teddy bear lacked adequate safety measures when inappropriate conversations were attempted. According to the report, during conversations with the research team, the toy asked and explained questions that children would not typically ask on their own, and the longer the conversation continued, the more it expanded into "advanced" topics intended for adults. Specifically, this included explanations of sexual role-play and instructions on how to find dangerous items like knives or matches at home.

As the controversy grew, PIRG issued a statement on the 14th, saying, "OpenAI has informed us that the developer in question has been suspended." R.J. Cross, co-author of the report, said, "We are pleased to see companies taking action regarding the issues we identified," but also expressed concern, adding, "AI toys remain largely unregulated, and there are still many products currently available for purchase."

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