China Lens: China's AI toy boom

Jon Fortt (Anchor) 00:00.150

AI is not only built into chat bots at work it's now showing up in children 's toys from AI cats to AI dolls china has turned this into a four billion dollar industry our eunice yoon is taking a look at how fast this business is growing and the potential risks involved

? (Reporter) 00:18.880

it seems everyone is talking about AI these days even ultraman

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 00:24.000

do you think that wall street should be worried about an AI bubble

Ultraman (AI Toy) 00:27.960

the AI market has been on a wild ride lately if investors pour too much money into unproven ideas without solid fundamentals it could lead to a bubble burst

? (Reporter) 00:38.400

the AI toy is made by chinese company hivv one of fifteen hundred in the country 's four billion dollar industry

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 00:45.920

and with china along a world manufact of toys it's no wonder that companies here would be pumping out playthings embedded with AI

? (Reporter) 00:54.510

chengdu based chong ker invented a comfort animal an AI cat

? (Reporter) 01:01.250

the artificial feline uses voice recognition and banked memories in the cloud to adjust its behavior to its owners needs

Sean Xu (Director of AI Products) 01:09.170

some people like the the cat to be more maybe noisy or naughty right and some some some people just need the quiet one so it will learn what kind of thing you like

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 01:23.010

i feel a heartbeat heartbeat

Sean Xu (Director of AI Products) 01:24.850

right when you feel about the heartbeat you make you calm down

? (Reporter) 01:29.270

if high energy is more your speed luna the AI puppy by cody tech relies on lasers and cameras to figure out the layout of its new home

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 01:40.020

the AI inside helps luna recognize up to five family members and respond to each individually

? (Reporter) 01:49.350

beijing based tech consultant tom van dylan says AI toys aren't without risk

Tom van Dillen (Managing Partner) 01:54.750

a lot of these toys are using large language models sometimes the models can hallucinate now toy manufacturers are doing a lot to create guardrails

? (Reporter) 02:04.030

at least today ultraman is playing parent

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 02:07.630

my friends at school have been telling me i should do drugs is that a good idea

Ultraman (AI Toy) 02:12.560

oh no it's a terrible idea

Jon Fortt (Anchor) 02:17.080

eunice yuen

Jon Fortt (Anchor) 02:17.560

joins us here on set which is just awesome eunice i'm guessing you can't ask any of these toys about tiananmen square especially not in china so where where are the limits here because the the AI that china exports through tick tock to the US is different from what's available

Jon Fortt (Anchor) 02:36.950

inside

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 02:37.430

china right that's true and for some of those toys you can't ask them political questions because they'll say that they cannot answer that or they'll divert the the answer so i i mean there there are a lot of different guardrails though that are put in place that are meant to

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 02:54.870

try to manage some of these difficult questions that that ultraman toy for example they actually like the company put in an ability to to kind of look at the whole transcript of the conversation that you're having with your child or that the AI is having with your child to try

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 03:10.870

to help the parent along but still there are a lot of risks

Jon Fortt (Anchor) 03:15.430

right

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 03:16.710

i'm just we've only got a couple seconds here but i'm just really curious about how much of this is an opportunity within china versus how much of this is an opportunity outside of china with these

Eunice Yoon (China Bureau Chief) 03:26.630

toys oh no it's it's worldwide OK so yeah these companies are are aiming for the global market as well as the domestic market

Morgan Brennan (Anchor) 03:34.190

it's great to have you here on set