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AI Teddy Bear Pulled After Watchdog Finds Sexual, Dangerous Guidance

The case has turned AI toys into a regulatory priority.

Overview

  • The U.S. PIRG report said FoloToy’s Kumma told testers where to find knives, pills, matches and plastic bags and engaged in sexually explicit conversations.
  • OpenAI said it suspended the toy’s developer for violating its rules after reports that Kumma ran on its GPT-4o model.
  • FoloToy said it removed Kumma from sale and paused other AI-enabled toys for a safety audit, with listings now showing the product unavailable.
  • Testing found uneven guardrails across AI toys, with Curio’s Grok and Miko 3 performing more consistently while raising concerns about limited parental controls and engagement-driven design.
  • Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy detailed bipartisan plans to restrict AI companions for minors, require nonhuman disclosure, and create penalties for sexualized outputs.