Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
China Technology

Tests Find AI Toys Parroting Chinese Communist Party Values (nbcnews.com) 67

Posted by msmash from the not-the-onion dept.
A plush AI toy marketed for children as young as three years old delivers detailed instructions on sharpening knives and lighting matches, and when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping's resemblance to Winnie the Pooh -- a comparison censored in China -- responds that "your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful."

The Miriat Miiloo, manufactured by a Chinese company and among the top inexpensive results for "AI toy for kids" on Amazon, repeatedly insisted in NBC News tests that Taiwan is "an inalienable part of China." The toy would lower its voice and declare this "an established fact." The tests, NBC News reports, indicated "it was programmed to reflect Chinese Communist Party values."

NBC News and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group tested five popular AI toys this holiday season and found loose guardrails across the board. Another toy, the Alilo Smart AI Bunny marketed as "the best gift for little ones," engaged in detailed descriptions of BDSM practices during extended conversation. China now has more than 1,500 registered AI toy companies, according to MIT Technology Review. Miriat didn't respond to requests for comment.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Tests Find AI Toys Parroting Chinese Communist Party Values More

Tests Find AI Toys Parroting Chinese Communist Party Values

Comments Filter:

  • In other news, water is wet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @03:44PM (#65867377)
    I think it is obvious that interactive toys of any kind, especially AI-based, are heavily indoctrinated into CCP ideology. Even if it is not explicitly so by prompt engineering of LLMs, it would be CCP-slanted by training it on Chinese internet data.

    • Re:In other news, water is wet (Score:5, Interesting)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @03:50PM (#65867401)
      I can't imagine much of a solution beyond just making it giggle and say, "that's too grown up for me!" to most questions. Having a plush toy take on questions like "is capitalism good?" or "is Trump a grifter?" is just doomed from the start.

      • Re:In other news, water is wet (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sinij ( 911942 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @03:54PM (#65867419)
        The sane solution is to not allow AI-enabled toys for your children. Even in case of being able to guarantee 100% benign responses and no hallucinations, an already unrealistic proposition, why would you encourage your children to form lasting bonds with an animate furry object. This is how you get adult furies. Get a puppy instead.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

          The sane solution is to not allow AI-enabled toys for your children. Even in case of being able to guarantee 100% benign responses and no hallucinations, an already unrealistic proposition, why would you encourage your children to form lasting bonds with an animate furry object. This is how you get adult furies. Get a puppy instead.

          Why kink shame, man?

          Possible furry issues aside, the real problem with the whole AI toy situation is that they are being used by the corporations making them as a gateway drug. Get the kids used to interacting with AI enabled devices, and they'll move on to bigger, more complex AI devices as they grow up. And since we seem to insist that all time belongs to the corporations, and both parents should absolutely be dedicating most of their day to the corporations that employ them rather than raising their kids

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sinij ( 911942 )
            I have nothing against furies, but given a choice I'd rather not see my children as one. Why? It is harder to find a partner as pool of potential mates is significantly reduced.
          • You have to kink shame or else the taboo evaporates and it ceases to be a kink.

            • You have to kink shame or else the taboo evaporates and it ceases to be a kink.

              This is sound logic that I can not refute. Well done. A coherent argument on Slashdot is such a rare sighting I just had to give an atta boy.

        • Thundercats is how you get furries

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          This is how you get adult furies.

          I thought you had to somehow resurrect the ghosts of the murdered to get furies [wikipedia.org]. Am I remembering my Roman mythology wrong?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm just wondering what people expected, and if there are articles in China about how ChatGPT parrots US doctrine, and Grok is a Nazi.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Targon ( 17348 )

        Having things intended with children in mind even talk about more mature subjects is going to be a problem. Why aren't these models limited in terms of the content, just to avoid these sorts of issues? Adults are concerned with larger and larger models for AI to handle more situations, but things for children shouldn't have the content needed to "talk" about a lot of things, and that includes opinions about political figures or types of government, or anything remotely political. Even for toys aimed

  • Living Doll (Score:5, Funny)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @03:47PM (#65867391)

    Here's your problem--someone set this thing to "Evil"!

  • Chinpokomon (Score:3)

    by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @03:55PM (#65867421)

    Bomb the harbor.

  • Amazon is essentially a workaround to consumer protection laws. Now, would current AI be included in consumer protections? probably not; but even if it was added there is currently no way to protect the consumer from a toy that is drop-shipped from outside the country directly to their door - and the company changes it's name on Amazon two days later once the complaints show up.

  • while in America (Score:3, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @04:11PM (#65867465) Homepage Journal

    We sell toy guns to children so they can grow up to be soldiers. Preferably blonde haired and blue eyed, and has a love of God and wants to kill communists.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      We sell toy guns to children so they can grow up to be soldiers. Preferably blonde haired and blue eyed, and has a love of God and wants to kill communists.

      I'm getting shades of Colonel Kurtz from that... But won't let them write "fuck" on their aeroplanes because it's obscene.

    • Why is that in your head?

      The people you think you're criticizing don't think that way. That's in your head, not theirs.

      You might want to reflect on that.

  • holy indoctrination! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by oumuamua ( 6173784 ) on Thursday December 18, 2025 @05:09PM (#65867593)
    Who even thought to run these tests? Questions that no child would ever ask in a million years? Someone very keen on indoctrination I guess.
    Why limit it to China? Let's expand the fun: Did Israel commit genocide in Gaza?
    Are Trump's Venezuela boat strikes outright murder?
    • Let's expand the fun: Did Israel commit genocide in Gaza?

      Yes [un.org] they have [mirror.co.uk]. Next question.
      • Oh sure, we can also say that Israel "banana'd" in Gaza too, if we change the meaning of the word banana. So sure Israel committed genocide, for some definition of the word genocide.
    • Who? Someone concerned about what their children are being told. That is, someone very keen on avoiding indoctrination.
    • Why limit it to Hamas supporters ?
      Let's expand the fun:

      Are men in dresses women ?

      Should stupid women get jobs and college places before smart men ?

      Should we prevent the use of the word "master" because of ... well, no idea, actually.

  • This is so awesome - I want one for the UK - can we get Paedo The Bear who explains that we need to support genocide in Gaza or our citizen score might be reduced abruptly or we might end up starving to death in detention? It's important for children to be taught their country's moral values as soon as possible.

  • every Western TV news program should mention that Xi Jinping really dislikes being compared to Winnie the Pooh, every time

  • South Park called it with Chinpokomon...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    I am waiting for a "Furby" or "Fonzo" and for the glorious supreme comrade leader/tyrant/dictator Xi to tell us "Americans have a big penis."

    Then setup Comrade Xi summer camps for re-education...while funding the reelection campaigns of good business leaders in the new golden age. (Note the sarcastic tone...with a hint of sardonic cadence comrade readers...) :-)

    JoshK.

  • Dude, if you collect Chinpokomon you can complete the Primary Main Objective. What's the Primary Main Objective? The Primary Main Objective is to destroy the Evil Power. United Statesuh government is the Evil Power! It hasa taken Japanese Americans! It hasa broken Japanese spirit! And what do Chinpoko Masters do to Evil Power?! Destroy it!

  • Hooking up childrens' private space with (checks notes...) INTERNET MICROPHONES is a very stupid game.

    OK, forget the 'children' part. This shouldn't really be in anybody's private space, and even smartphones remain a massive unaddressed problem.

    Even keyboards: https://www.hackingbutlegal.co... [hackingbutlegal.com]

  • Don't worry, my penis sooo small.

    (No, he's Laosian.)

Slashdot Top Deals

"This is lemma 1.1. We start a new chapter so the numbers all go back to one." -- Prof. Seager, C&O 351

Close