Barbie, the doll that has been in every girl's room for 56 years, will gain artificial intelligence!
“Hello Barbie” will now be able to talk to children, having two-way conversations with them and listening to and responding to them. This new Barbie technology was created by ToyTalk, a company founded by former Pixar employees. The doll’s release comes just in time to help boost sales of the doll, which have been in a slump recently as children have turned to other forms of entertainment.
Using an Internet connection and speech recognition technology, the newest version of the famous doll will be able to hear! But its creators have a big challenge to face, protecting children's safety and privacy after essentially putting a Wi-Fi- in their hands.
Earlier this year, hackers showed us that they can take control of an Internet-connected doll, hacking the “My Friend Kayla” doll into ignoring a list of bad words and cursing.
As for “Hello Barbie,” even if it is the safest and most protected toy of its kind, it may still be a big risk. If it is successful, other toy manufacturers will try to create similar toys and may not be as careful as Mattel and ToyTalk, the makers of the new doll.
The doll is the first toy to connect to the Internet, but not the first product from the company, which has created mobile apps that use similar technology. The company says that children who use “Hello Barbie” will be protected under federal guidelines and under the Privacy Act.
As long as children played with real dolls, their children would confide their secrets and parents could not hear them. But will this be the case now? Even if parents respect their children's privacy and do not listen to the conversations stored on the doll, sometimes they may need to be made public, such as in court for divorce cases.
A ToyTalk spokesperson said it's not impossible that the doll could be hacked, but they've made it as difficult as possible. All data sent between the doll and the central server is encrypted using technology similar to that used by Gmail and Yahoo Mail. The information travels through a secure channel with cryptographic protocols and digital certificates so that even if a conversation is intercepted, all the hacker will hear is gibberish.
But the concern remains that there are weak points in the doll. The WiFi connection makes it susceptible to hacking since it is not very difficult for someone to break into a Wi-Fi network.
Everyone should be aware of the threat and all companies should have safety as their first concern, especially a company that targets children. The makers of “Hello Barbie” have realized this and are already doing extra checks for any defects. Let’s hope that every girl’s favorite doll will remain an innocent toy.
