Get your kid a robot playmate

Imagine a world where your kid's teddy bear doesn't just give cuddles — it also dishes out help with their math homework.

Or where you can finally subdue an only-child’s request for a sibling with a robot playmate that teaches them about emotions and healthy habits through engaging conversation.

Welcome to the future.

Excited?

…or terrified?

You might be a little bit of both, and that’s 100% reasonable.

Let’s dive into what we know so far. 👇

Beyond play

Forget forgetting to feed your Tamagotchi, trying to get your Furby to sleep through the night, or tickling your Elmo — these new virtual toys are next level.

Take Miko for example.

With partnerships spanning from Disney to Oxford University Press, Miko is blending entertainment with education, promising a personalized learning experience that keeps pace with your child's curiosity.

“Fostering social and emotional well-being is also one of Miko's intended functions,” said CEO and co-founder Sneh Vaswani.

“Our goal is to help parents raise kids in the modern world by engaging, educating, and entertaining children through multimodal interactions with robotics and AI,” he told Forbes last month.

And starting at only $99, adopting a robot pal is within reach for many families.

The tutor (and therapist) that never gets tired

At a –ahem– slightly higher price point, Moxie, “The Learning Robot with a Heart”, can help your kids level-up their academic performance while having conversations that are modeled after behavioral therapy sessions.

This can “help children identify and speak about their source of anxiety or stress, and offer mindfulness exercises,” according to founder Paolo Pirjanian.

Pretty cool, huh?

And don’t worry — it’s definitely not spying on you.

Says so right on the website. 😝

Staying safe

Privacy is a huge concern, especially when it comes to our kids.

Long before the AI craze, Mattel released the Hello Barbie, a “smart” version of the classic doll capable of having conversations with kids.

The problem?

Mattel was sharing audio recordings with “third party vendors who assist with speech recognition,” and hackers could easily gain access.

It was discontinued two years later.

Around the same time, another interactive doll, My Friend Cayla, was designated as a spy by the German government, with buyers of the doll ordered to destroy them or face a fine and possible prison time. 😲

But here’s the good news—

Most of today’s robot toymakers have since learned from those early mistakes, and store all data “locally” (instead of on the cloud), which means the recordings never leave the toy itself.

Of course, there’s always a risk of personal data leaking, but with extensive guardrails in place, it’s likely that the positive impact made by this new generation of AI playmates far outweighs the risk.