The main antagonist<\/span> of Toy Story 5<\/em>, in theaters this summer, is a green, frog-shaped kids\u2019 tablet named Lilypad, a genius new villain for the beloved Pixar franchise. But if Pixar had its ear to the ground, it might have used an AI kids\u2019 toy instead.<\/p>\n AI toys are seemingly everywhere, marketed online as friendly companions to children as young as three, and they’re still a largely unregulated category. It\u2019s easier than ever to spin up an AI companion, thanks to model developer programs and vibe coding. In 2026, they\u2019ve become a go-to trend in cheap trinkets, lining the halls of trade shows like CES, MWC, and Hong Kong\u2019s Toys & Games Fair. By October 2025, there were over 1,500 AI toy companies registered in China, and Huawei\u2019s Smart HanHan plush toy sold 10,000 units in China in its first week. Sharp put its PokeTomo talking AI toy on sale in Japan this April.<\/p>\n But if you browse for AI toys on Amazon, you\u2019ll mostly find specialized players like FoloToy, Alilo, Miriat, and Miko, the last of which claims to have sold more than 700,000 units.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Miko<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Consumer groups argue that AI toys, in the form of soft teddy bears, bunnies, sunflowers, creatures, and kid-friendly \u201crobots,\u201d need more guardrails and stricter regulations. FoloToy\u2019s Kumma bear, powered by OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4o when tested by the Public Interest Research Group\u2019s New Economy team, gave instructions on how to light a match and find a knife, and discussed sex and drugs. Alilo\u2019s Smart AI bunny talked about leather floggers and \u201cimpact play,\u201d and in tests by NBC News, Miriat\u2019s Miiloo toy spouted Chinese Communist Party talking points.<\/p>\n Age-inappropriate content is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI toys. We\u2019re starting to see real research into the potential social impacts on children. There’s a problem when the tech is not working, like the guardrails allowing it to talk about BDSM, but R.J. Cross, director of consumer advocacy group PIRG’s Our Online Life program, says that\u2019s fixable. \u201cThen there\u2019s the problems when the tech gets too good, like \u2018I’m gonna be your best friend,\u2019\u201d she says. Like the Gabbo, from AI toy maker Curio. There are real social developmental issues to consider with these kinds of toys, even if these toy companies advertise their products as superior, \u201dscreen-free play.\u201d<\/p>\n Published in March, a new University of Cambridge study was the first to put a commercially available AI toy in front of a group of children and their parents and monitor their play. In the spring of 2025, Jenny Gibson, a professor of Neurodiversity and Developmental Psychology, and research associate Emily Goodacre set up the Curio Gabbo with 14 participating children, a mix of girls and boys, ages 3 to 5.<\/p>\n Gabbo didn\u2019t talk about drugs or say \u201cI love you\u201d back. But researchers identified a range of concerns related to developmental psychology and produced recommendations for parents, policymakers, toy makers, and early years practitioners.<\/p>\n First, conversational turn-taking. Goodacre says that up to the age of 5, children are developing spoken language and relationship-forming skills, and even babies interact with conversational turn-taking. The Gabbo\u2019s turn-taking is \u201cnot human\u201d and \u201cnot intuitive,\u201d she says. Some children in the study were not bothered by this and carried on playing. Others encountered interruptions because the toy\u2019s microphone was not actively listening while it was speaking, disrupting the back-and-forth flow of, say, a counting game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69fd10d88bf756131f7c4ffd\/1:1\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/Miko%25203-1.jpg\"\/)
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\nHow Real Kids Play<\/h2>\n