NBC News and PIRG took a look into genAI-backed toys. The results were unsettling.

"AI toys for kids talk about sex and issue Chinese Communist Party talking points, tests show" (NBC News)

This may look like a problem with AI (and to be fair, no model is perfect) but the root cause is … people:

Specifically, it's company executives who insist on using genAI when they don't know the full scope of what it can/cannot do, don't know how to evaluate opportunities, and don't know what can go wrong.

So long as company leaders refuse to understand this technology, they're not building the future – they're simply playing with fire.

Want to avoid these kinds of problems for your company's AI projects? My latest book will help.

Twin Wolves: Balancing risk and reward to make the most of AI is a compact list of rules for CEOs, CTOs, and Product Leads to guide them through AI implementation.

In this case, adhering to five rules could have helped the toy companies avoid the negative press coverage:

• Strategy/Planning, Rule 2: Develop AI literacy (especially at the executive level)

• Strategy/Planning, Rule 3: Be intentional in choosing AI projects

• Strategy/Planning, Rule 8: Anticipate failures

• R&D, Rule 1: Perform a review of every AI project before it starts

• Operations, Rule 3: Monitor the models' outputs