Toymaker Mattel Cancels AI Babysitter After Privacy Complaints (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Toymaker Mattel has shelved plans to build an "all-in-one voice-controlled smart baby monitor," after complaints about the device were raised by privacy advocates and child psychologists. According to a report from The Washington Post, the company said in a statement that the device, named Aristotle, did not "fully align with Mattel's new technology strategy" and would not be "[brought] to the marketplace." Aristotle was unveiled back in January this year by Mattel's Nabi brand. It combined the smart speaker and digital assistant functionality of Amazon's Echo with a connected camera that acted as a baby monitor. But the Aristotle was intended to be a much more active presence in children's lives than an Echo speaker, with Mattel claiming it would read them bedtime stories, soothe them if they cried in the night, and even teach them their ABCs. A petition asking Mattel not to release the Aristotle gained more than 15,000 signatories.

Comments

Whiners

[fred911]

"A petition asking Mattel not to release the Aristotle gained more than 15,000 signatories."

  It's a pretty easy fix for a product you don't like or agree with, DON'T BUY IT!

  Petition, please. Some parents may WANT to expose their children to this type of technology and you don't have the right to tell them not to.

Re:Whiners

[Anonymous Coward]

Busybodies. We've become a nation of entitled busybodies. Even the laziest, most worthless American can find food and basic shelter, and one half a rung above them you can get a smartphone and blather self-importantly on twitter. You can literally be a functional moron and if your crackpot twitter post finds the right audience suddenly it will catch fire and people think your opinion is meaningful because 10k other morons on twitter retwittered it.