What Chinese parents see in AI toys

This video of a girl crying over her broken AI chatbot has gone viral in China. Xiaozhi AI is powered by artificial intelligence and can have long conversations with six-year-old Shisan Hu. The gadget and similar chatbot toys are part of a multibillion-dollar Chinese AI toy industry that is expected to grow rapidly. What is a black hole? The black hole is — Some of these chatty toys are coming to the United States, where parents have raised concerns about chatbots and young children engaging in inappropriate conversations. However, in China, many parents like Zelei Hu are adopting chatbot toys. The father said that his daughter was an only child and he decided to buy Xiaozhi AI so that she would have a companion. So in the control panel, Hu went to the character profile section and wrote down how he wanted the toy to interact with Shisan. So the father asked the device to focus on teaching English and astronomy. Hu said he considers the chatbot toy a member of the family. For Shisan, Xiaozhi AI is not a toy. The father said one of the best things about the device is that it eliminates a major distraction. After a month of daily conversation with the chatbot, it broke down. Hu said seeing his daughter become so emotional made him worry that she was becoming too attached. Eventually, the father decided to repair the toy because he said his attitude toward AI technology had changed.