The UK government is safety testing AI toys

LONDON — Civil servants in Britain’s business department are testing AI-enabled toys to determine their safety ahead of potential new restrictions.

The testing is being carried out by the little-known Office for Product Safety & Standards, part of the Department for Business and Trade, and involves officials putting the toys through real-life scenarios to see how they respond, according to one person involved granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the work.

AI toys integrate chatbots, which can engage in human-like conversations with the user, into physical toys designed for children — and many are already on the market, even as researchers warn we don’t know much about the risks they might pose to kids.

If a toy were determined to be unsafe, the government could intervene through the Product Safety and Metrology Act passed last year, which grants it increased powers to impose regulations on consumer products put on the U.K. market, including those sold online.

The government has also said it will consult shortly on “major reforms” to the U.K.’s product safety framework to tackle the prevalence of unsafe products sold to Brits and increase the regime’s enforcement powers.

In a written statement in December, Digital Economy Minister Liz Lloyd said the government was committed to reviewing the regulations for toys, which would “examine whether changes are needed to detailed safety requirements to reflect modern challenges, such as the use of AI in toys.”

It comes amid warnings from researchers and consumer and parent groups over the safety of AI toys and their impact on children.

A study by University of Cambridge researchers this month warned that AI toys are already being marketed to children despite a lack of robust studies about how they could impact early years development. The researchers called for stricter regulation and labeling requirements to help inform parents.

Testing one toy, the researchers found that it often misunderstood children and reacted inappropriately to emotions. In one instance a toy reacted to a five-year-old boy saying “I love you” with “please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided.”

In an open letter issued before Christmas, U.K.-based campaign group set@16 declared the marketing of AI toys to British toddlers a “national and international emergency” and demanded an “immediate moratorium on sales and an urgent product recall.”

Some experts have suggested that a “product safety” approach — whereby the onus is on those marketing a product to demonstrate that it meets consumer safety standards — could provide a blueprint to regulate AI more broadly.

Some within Labour have heard that message. Speaking at a conference in London last week, Labour MP Tom Collins argued that a product safety approach could provide a more familiar framework for regulating the novel technology than sweeping regulation.

Product safety is “a really good benchmark that we can all agree on,” he said.