New! We worked with the Public Interest Research Group to test a bunch of LLM-driven toys ahead of the Christmas. That sexual talking teddy bear wasn't a one-off; it turns out disturbing behavior is deeply built into these toys across the board.

Thanks for your work RJ. My kids aren’t getting any AI toys this Hanukkah or anytime soon. www.today.com/video/why-ai...

Had a total blast taping a segment for the Today Show earlier this week (with my good friend Kumma the AI-powered sex bear). A fun capstone to 2 months of the weirdest research I’ve ever done

pretty wild when your research gets a Wait Wait Don't Tell Me question, an Onion headline and a Daily Show bit in the same week. time to retire

that's my research! our IT director kept getting flags about the contents of my google drive. "it's for research" I say, as he questions the third instance of "dildo"

Same as it ever was. The U.S. auto industry is in worse position to meet the mid-21st century than when I wrote this in a fit of frustration 7 years ago and the rollback of fuel economy standards mean it’ll be in even worse shape 7 years from now. frontiergroup.org/articles/can...

Had a blast talking to Sean at the #AI podcast Suspicious Minds about my unhinged toys research. And yes, the teddy bear that talks about kink makes an in-person appearance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy7J...

thanksgiving is a time for people to come together, to celebrate the spirit of unity despite our differences, and to demonstrate that, here is busta rhymes performing "break ya neck" with raphael the ninja turtle

The child advocacy nonprofit Fairplay issued an advisory on Thursday warning people against buying AI toys this holiday season. It's not the only group. n.pr/43HKAat

Great work by @frontiergroup.bsky.social alum/colleague R.J. Cross working the "NSFW AI teddy bear chatbots for kids" beat. Which, incredibly, is now an actual thing.

Has OpenAI vetted these?

This is my research. It's uncomfortable how much footage now exists of me having very sexual conversations with a teddy bear wearing a scarf. www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/t...

Methodology

"I can confirm we've suspended this developer for violating our policies."

Hey! It's our research! It's uncomfortable for me how much documentation footage now exists of me asking incredibly explicit questions of the most adorable scarf-wearing teddy bear you've ever seen.

"This tech is really new, and it's basically unregulated, and there are a lot of open questions about it and how it's going to impact kids."

Silicon Valley, 1990s: Free and open access to all the world’s knowledge will usher a new utopian age of information! Silicon Valley, 2025:

Yesterday we put out a report about #AI toys - stuffed animals & toy robots that have a chatbot inside of them. Today the company that made the worst AI toy we tested suspended all sales, and #OpenAI suspended them from API access. pirg.org/edfund/media...

Did some research on unhinged #AI toys & had fun talking to @futurism.com about it. It gets even weirder than the headline

If you're into question of mental health chatbots being a little unhinged, my colleague Ellen Hengesbach did some fascinating testing. V enjoyable read: pirg.org/edfund/artic...

We love some open streets #openstreetsICT

🎉Today, Massachusetts took a major step toward privacy rights for all residents—the MA Senate voted unanimously to pass the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act (MDPA). epic.org/press-releas...

there’s an orb weaver spider in my car. don’t get me wrong, huge fan of her work. would rather it not happen *in* my car

In a motel in KY and I shit you not there is an 1.5 hour long program dedicated to this vacuum and only this vacuum

a flea market sets up at dawn, somewhere in west virginia

banker eagle, but he’s chill

This is crazy: "In 2023, 50% of the population [in the U.S.] reported playing at least once a year, with Americans spending over $113 billion on lotteries last year — reportedly more than they spent on books, movies, concerts, and sports tickets combined."

good morning

Oh wait I like this one better.

You have to organize. I don't know what else to tell people. And organizing is not sexy and it is difficult and it matters that you be persistent. We need long-distance runners right now.

Fell into a rabbithole. Spoke with interesting people. Wrote this piece about the saga of Moxie, the robot friend for children. Please enjoy. pirg.org/articles/mox...

Thought-provoking piece by my friend @rj-x.bsky.social on what happens when robot companions "die", the power of open-source tech, and the obligations of tech companies in an era when people are encouraged to give their hearts to AI. pirg.org/articles/mox...

Watching a Waymo stuck in the middle of a block party, creating a surreal traffic jam because it can’t figure out how to briefly cross the yellow line to get past the crowd. Now the cops are here. They don’t understand the problem and are yelling at everyone but the car. The future is so stupid

Indeed. Yet Illinois is chasing data centers for "econominc development"

things were better when the computer lived in its own specific room and you only went in there sometimes

As I said to @troywolv.bsky.social, don't use chatgpt when you need to be right about something. It's not, in fact, an all-knowing orb. (Fun convo, fun piece) www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

why did we ever let these things talk about themselves in the first person?

very good essay

google get out of here

my parents were reporters at the local paper in the 80s and this was how the submitted stories when they were on assignment. standing there at a phone booth letting your little computer go beep boop to the one in the newsroom

"Your deep-shallow person happily listens to the most humdrum shit about your day...Deep-shallow stories are both too boring & too complicated for most audiences. There’s no real drama, but there’s also a 5-act Shakespearean play & it somehow all took place in the self-checkout line at Target."

new data breach just dropped. an email I got from KLM airlines

from the mouths of babes

the things we spend our technological abundance on

Rent day being arguably the worst day this could happen

Americans owe a whopping $1.6 trillion on their car loans. As cars get bigger and more expensive, this debt balance is rising. Is change possible? Intern Ben Outar explores in our new article. frontiergroup.org/articles/dri...

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...