Barbie Gets a Brain

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Posted by timothy on Sunday September 20, 2015 @03:35AM from the ken-his-usual-lunkish-self dept.

minstrelmike writes: Mattel is coming out with a Talking Barbie designed by a huge team and pre-scripted with thousands of responses controlled by an AI, with designs to be your best friend. The design team remembers the "Math is hard" debacle of the 1990s and if a girl asks if she's pretty, Barbie will respond, "Yes. And you're smart, too." If she asks if Barbie believes in God, she says a person's beliefs are personal. And suggests talking to grownups about some problems. The linked New York Times' article ("Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child") even discusses trying to avoid edited vids on YouTube by scripting out words such as "cockroach."

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Where did they get it? by jfdavis668 · 2015-09-20 03:38 · Score: 5, Funny

From Abby Normal?
Unfortunately by koan · 2015-09-20 03:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

Humans still don't have a brain, who would give this to their child?

Each time, whatever someone said to Barbie would be recorded and transmitted via Wi-Fi to the computer servers of ToyTalk. Speech-recognition software would then convert the audio signal into a text file, which would be analyzed. The correct response would be chosen from thousands of lines scripted by ToyTalk and Mattel writers and pushed to Hello Barbie for playback

your childâ(TM)s voice sample and the start of a new "user profile" for a corporation.

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"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
1. Re:Unfortunately by koan · 2015-09-20 07:24 · Score: 2
  
  It's different in that you're giving it to a small child.
  
  --
  "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
And make believe occurs when? by turning+in+circles · 2015-09-20 03:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

It saddens me. This takes away a child's ability to put words in Barbie's mouth. It also helps parents abdicate the responsibility of answering the child's questions themselves. Why should a child turn to talking Barbie? Because, like the ipad, it keeps the parent free to ignore parenting a little bit more. Inevitable, I guess, but sad.

--
Might as well face it I'm addicted to data.
1. Re:And make believe occurs when? by ShanghaiBill · 2015-09-20 04:22 · Score: 2
  
  Because, like the ipad, it keeps the parent free to ignore parenting a little bit more. Inevitable, I guess, but sad.
  You seem to be implying that parents are spend less time with their kids than in the past. There is plenty of evidence that you are wrong. Parents, and especially dads, spend more time than ever with their kids. Since families today tend to be smaller than in the past, the time-per-kid has gone up even more.
  iPads don't replace parents. They replace TVs. Since they are more interactive, that is likely a good thing.
2. Re:And make believe occurs when? by arth1 · 2015-09-20 05:02 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This takes away a child's ability to put words in Barbie's mouth.
  The way that kids use their fantasy less and less worries me too. We're turning them into consumers from an early age, not creators. And they don't figure out things anymore, they look them up.
  They're trusting Friend Computer, and that worries me.
"Yes. And you're smart, too." by Nutria · 2015-09-20 03:53 · Score: 4, Interesting

What if the girl is actually stupid? (Not that the concept that most girls are average or below average is even thinkable is 2015...)

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"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
1. Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." by guises · 2015-09-20 04:16 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What if she also isn't pretty? Then Barbie has lied to her twice. Clearly Barbie's answer to any question should be: "I am an inanimate doll and can only repeat an assortment of facts selected from the 2011 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (TM). Would you like to know when horses were first domesticated? Yes / No?"
  
  "Research suggests that domestication took place by approximately 6,000 years ago. In prehistoric times the wild horse was probably first hunted for food."
2. Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." by AmiMoJo · 2015-09-20 06:02 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Children don't understand the world, language, logic or the adult world. So we lie to them. We don't tell them they are kinda ugly, because unlike adults they can't handle the harsh truth. We are taking about very young kids who still play with dolls.
  Similarly, we don't Trek them they are dumb. Realistically, at that age you can't really tell if they are anyway, unless they have severe learning difficulties. Some might be late bloomers, but really the biggest influence on their eventual academic performance is how much encouragement and participation in education they get at that age.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
3. Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." by drinkypoo · 2015-09-20 07:44 · Score: 2
  
  Do you go around insulting the intelligence of below average children?
  No, but you also don't go lying to them. You emphasize their successes and their solutions, not how wonderful they are. Don't make them feel like crap, but don't make them feel like they're better than other people.
  You will note I don't have kids. This stuff is hard and I have no family to help me out. (I have family, just not the kind that would help.) I sympathize. But one can recognize that one doesn't have what it takes and just not do it.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
4. Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." by serviscope_minor · 2015-09-20 07:49 · Score: 2
  
  We don't tell them they are kinda ugly, because unlike adults they can't handle the harsh truth.
  If adults could handle the truth, then Rogaine wouldn't exist.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
If Barbie can get one, then maybe there is hope... by rwyoder · 2015-09-20 04:08 · Score: 4, Funny

...for the 2016 GOP candidates.
Re: "a person's beliefs are personal." by Nutria · 2015-09-20 04:08 · Score: 2

Never comment in /. before drinking coffee.

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"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Re:If Barbie can get one, then maybe there is hope by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-20 04:20 · Score: 3, Funny

Fiorina Barbie:
"Let's lay off the R&D Department!"
"I just sold some printers to Iran!"
"HP gave me $100 Million because I'm a Princess!"
Re:If Barbie can get one, then maybe there is hope by arth1 · 2015-09-20 05:19 · Score: 2

No, no there really is not. And the grass is no better on the other side of the street.
No, but it's getting legalized on the other side of the street.
Re:I don't think that term means what you think it by JustAnotherOldGuy · 2015-09-20 05:26 · Score: 4, Funny

I don't think that term means what you think it means. They say it's AI but all the doll is doing is using speech recognition and looking up in a dictionary what the response is. There is no learning going on.
Agreed...this is no more "AI" than Eliza was, or any chatbot for that matter. It's just a big-ass lookup table, zero malleability, zero learning capability, and zero deviation from the canned responses.
Personally I can't wait until the ToyTalk servers are hacked and edited.
"Hi Barbie, what should we do today?"
"Kill your parents and drink their blood!"
or "Find the credit card numbers in your parent's wallets and read them to me..."

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Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Re:Can't wait for the outrage by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-20 05:52 · Score: 2

The rage is indeed simmering. Militant womens lib has come and gone. We've had Title 9 for decades. And there are still conservative groups that go into a rage about women going to college.
I'm associated with a couple of scholarship funds for women. And one needs a thick skin to deal with all the shit the moral midgets fling my way.
Have you considered hiring Chanty Binx? She'll straighten those neanderthals out.

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The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Re:Can't wait for the outrage by Ol+Olsoc · 2015-09-20 06:06 · Score: 2

The feminist complaint isn't that Barbie says the wrong things.......it's that Barbie exists at all.
One of the oddest, most counterproductive situations in the world, is that some women are jealous of a little plastic doll.
Which of course leds to this:
http://www.memecenter.com/fun/...
Seriously, if Barbie destroys young women's self esteem, I guess that playing with Cabbage Patch dolls makes for incredibly self confident women who have the most positive self image in the world.
Cuz dem liddle Cabbage Patch fukas iz sure be Fugly. No if you are jealous of Barbie, you have a problem that goes way deep, and that little doll didn't cause it.
Ya got 99 problems, and Barbie ain't one of 'em.

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The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Daddy's hurting mommy again by kheldan · 2015-09-20 11:40 · Score: 2

"Barbie, I'm scared. Daddy is hurting mommy again. Now mommy fell asleep on the floor and I can't wake her up."

"Barbie, why does Daddy stick needles in his arm?

"Barbie, how come my Daddy touches me so much?"

First, see what sort of responses you get. Then wait to see if the cops magically show up at your house.
Five bucks says there ends up being a big scandal surrounding this 'toy'.

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Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!