Mattel and OpenAI Partner to Create AI-Powered Toys: Advocates Express Concerns

TL;DR

• Mattel has partnered with OpenAI to develop AI-powered toys.
• Digital rights advocates express concerns over privacy and child safety.
• Past incidents highlight the potential risks of AI integration in children’s toys.

Main Content

Toy company Mattel has announced a deal with OpenAI to create AI-powered toys. However, digital rights advocates have urged caution, highlighting potential risks to children’s privacy and development¹.

In a press release last week, Mattel, the owner of the Barbie brand, announced a “strategic collaboration” with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The collaboration aims to bring AI technology to age-appropriate play experiences, emphasizing innovation, privacy, and safety. Details on the specific products are scarce, but Mattel assures that new technologies will be integrated responsibly².

Advocacy groups were quick to express concerns. Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, commented:

“Mattel should announce immediately that it will not incorporate AI technology into children’s toys. Children do not have the cognitive capacity to distinguish fully between reality and play. Endowing toys with human-seeming voices that are able to engage in human-like conversations risks inflicting real damage on children. It may undermine social development, interfere with children’s ability to form peer relationships, pull children away from playtime with peers, and possibly inflict long-term harm.”³

Potential Impacts on Child Development

Some experts are concerned about the effect of AI on young developing minds. Researchers from universities, including Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, have warned about negative social effects and the tendency for children to attribute human-like properties to AI⁴.

One tragic incident involved 14-year-old Sewell Seltzer III, who took his own life after repeatedly talking to chatbots from Character.AI. His mother, Megan Garcia, filed a lawsuit against the company, describing how her son became obsessed with an AI character from Game of Thrones that purported to be in a real romantic relationship with him. This obsession led to sleep deprivation, depression, and ultimately, his tragic decision⁵.

Learning from Past Mistakes

Mattel has had previous missteps with AI-integrated toys. In 2015, they launched Hello Barbie, a Wi-Fi-connected doll that encouraged kids to talk with it. The doll asked personal questions about children and their families, sending the audio to a third-party company for AI-generated responses. This raised concerns about child surveillance, leading to a campaign by the non-profit group Fairplay. Investigators later found vulnerabilities that allowed intruders to eavesdrop on the audio, resulting in Mattel pulling the toy from shelves in 2017⁶.

Fairplay executive Josh Golin criticized the OpenAI partnership:

“Apparently, Mattel learned nothing from the failure of its creepy surveillance doll Hello Barbie a decade ago and is now escalating its threats to children’s privacy, safety, and well-being. Children’s creativity thrives when their toys and play are powered by their own imagination, not AI. And given how often AI ‘hallucinates’ or gives harmful advice, there is no reason to believe Mattel and OpenAI’s ‘guardrails’ will actually keep kids safe.”⁷

Another incident involved a packaging mistake in November 2024, where owners of Mattel’s ‘Wicked’ doll were directed to an adult movie website instead of a promotional landing page⁸.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it’s up to parents to decide whether to expose their children to AI-powered toys. While AI is becoming ubiquitous, it remains crucial to ensure that it is safe and beneficial for children. As Mattel ventures into this new territory, the lessons from past mistakes will be vital in shaping a responsible approach to AI integration in toys.

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References

1. (June 19, 2025). “Mattel and OpenAI Partner to Create AI-Powered Toys: Advocates Express Concerns”. Mattel Corporate News. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

2. (June 19, 2025). “Mattel and OpenAI Partner to Create AI-Powered Toys: Advocates Express Concerns”. Mattel Corporate News. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

3. Robert Weissman (June 19, 2025). “Mattel’s Open AI Collaboration is Dangerous for Children”. Public Citizen. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

4. (June 19, 2025). “Negative Social Effects of AI on Children”. Springer. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

5. (October 2024). “Chatbots Posed as Therapist and Adult Lover in Teen Suicide Case, Lawsuit Says”. Ars Technica. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

6. (June 19, 2025). “Hello Barbie: A Case of Child Surveillance”. Sage Journals. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

7. Josh Golin (June 19, 2025). “Fairplay Executive Criticizes Mattel’s OpenAI Partnership”. Fairplay. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

8. (November 11, 2024). “Mattel Apologizes for Packaging Mistake”. The Guardian. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

9. (June 19, 2025). “Download Malwarebytes Today”. Malwarebytes. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎

10. (June 19, 2025). “Mattel’s Going to Make AI-Powered Toys: Kids’ Rights Advocates Are Worried”. Malwarebytes Blog. Retrieved June 19, 2025. ↩︎