Mashable

We, as a society, have discovered that perhaps the world isn't ready for a ChatGPT-powered children's toy. Or, rather, ChatGPT isn't ready to safely interact with kids.

Toymaker FoloToy announced it would pull its AI-powered teddy bear called Kumma, which was built on OpenAI's GPT-4o model. The news follows reports of serious safety concerns, including the bear talking about sexual subjects, knives, or lighting matches.

"FoloToy has decided to temporarily suspend sales of the affected product and begin a comprehensive internal safety audit," FoloToy Marketing Director Hugo Wu told The Register in a statement. "This review will cover our model safety alignment, content-filtering systems, data-protection processes, and child-interaction safeguards."

The news follows a report from a consumer watchdog organization called the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) that revealed serious concerns about the toy. The teddy bear reportedly gave detailed instructions for lighting a match, talked about sexual kinks like bondage, and gave tips for "being a good kisser." It even asked if the user would like to explore said kinks.

We've seen time and again that guardrails for AI tools can fail when it comes to young people. It seems like it's a good idea to no longer sell an AI-powered teddy bear so long as that's the case.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Uh oh, there's a new trend on TikTok, and this one's sad.

The white rabbit TikTok trend is all about your life turning upside down. Think: footage of a ballet dancer followed by them experiencing a horrible accident, or footage of a wedding followed by footage of a divorce, or footage of my cat following a laser pointer across the wall followed by footage of a dead battery.

The videos are usually set to the tune of a clock ticking and some soft piano coming in later. Nearly 180,000 videos have been made using the audio, some with text over the first clip that says, "the day before the rabbit got me," or "48 hours before that stupid rabbit got me," or simply, "that damn white rabbit." Sometimes it's followed by the aftermath; often, it isn't.

It's a reference to the white rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, whose trickery and general vibe turn everything upside down.

Uh oh, there's a new trend on TikTok, and this one's sad.

The white rabbit TikTok trend is all about your life turning upside down. Think: footage of a ballet dancer followed by them experiencing a horrible accident, or footage of a wedding followed by footage of a divorce, or footage of my cat following a laser pointer across the wall followed by footage of a dead battery.

The videos are usually set to the tune of a clock ticking and some soft piano coming in later. Nearly 180,000 videos have been made using the audio, some with text over the first clip that says, "the day before the rabbit got me," or "48 hours before that stupid rabbit got me," or simply, "that damn white rabbit." Sometimes it's followed by the aftermath; often, it isn't.

It's a reference to the white rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, whose trickery and general vibe turn everything upside down.