This part is part Trends Forwardour video and podcast series exploring how disruptive technologies are changing the way we live. This week we talk to Arun Gupta, Founder and CEO of Hapiko, about
If you're one of those people who says, “It feels like AI is everywhere,” you're wrong. Yes, it infiltrates work, school and other places, but it is quickly moving into many other new worlds as well.
One of them is the toy aisle, and it comes with terrifying risks. For parents, the idea of your child having almost unfiltered access to the best (and worst) of the internet seems like a huge no-no, and yet we're seeing a proliferation of toys that can turn bedtime stories into real-life Grimm's fairy tales.
That's why we spoke to Aron Gupta, an entrepreneur who has successfully founded companies in the wearables and fashion retail industries. But while spending time with his family, he began to think about how technology could not only entertain children, but also educate them and encourage their creativity.
Gupta reunited with his technical partner Robert Whitney and they began working on creating Stickerboxa stand-alone device that uses artificial intelligence to allow children to describe images they imagine (virtually any) and see them on a monochrome front-panel display before printing them on demand.
The design is reminiscent of the old Etch a Sketch game, and the stickers are printed on a built-in thermal printer, meaning less mess, and kids can then color them as they wish.
The concept is simple, and I have found that it has already moved beyond the early adopters and is becoming more widely known. Recently talking about a sticker box to a friend in the UK who has young children, she said: “Oh, that Etch-a-Sketch AI sticker?” I want one of these so bad!
While I assume she meant that she wanted it for her children, it shows that AI is secondary here: being able to create tangible things with your voice is exciting, not that machine learning is behind it.
New generation of toys
The Stickerbox appears to be designed, constructed and functions as a clear contrast to some of the other AI toys on the market. The most problematic ones offer to become your child's friend and confidant.
They constantly listen to everything that is said in the environment, and can even manipulate children. There were examples of toys with artificial intelligence that told children how to find weapons and matches.
And here comes the conflict: artificial intelligence tools can help develop children's wonder and creativity, allowing them to do things that were simply impossible before. But this opportunity also comes with incredible risk—and that's why our conversation with Gupta is simple: How can you create a toy that brings the benefits of AI without the dangers that access brings?
Research recently published by PIRG highlighted huge concerns about toys based on LLM access such as OpenAI ChatGPTand the fact that even if there are fences, they can be bypassed.
So what makes stickerbox different?
“We started with a very simple question: what if AI was created for children?” says Gupta.
“I think Bob and I, when we started this company, were very inspired by social media and the impact that social media had on the younger generation. Social media, everyone knows, was built with casino mechanics, built to give you that dopamine, built for maximum engagement so it could serve you as much as possible.
“But then you take that and think about this model for kids, and… it doesn't really fit very well. There's no social network that's really built for kids. And I think you're seeing the same thing with AI.”
Therefore, the sticker box was designed to harness the creative power of artificial intelligence while being safe for children. There are three specific safety factors: the device only “listens” when the microphone button is pressed; there are strict rules for the safety of content during withdrawal; and parents can take full control of their children's creations using the included app.
The box will not allow children to visualize nudity, blood, violence or gore, as Gupta said the company wanted to “err on the side of being more safe, not less safe, when we start.”
Stickbox does connect to the internet to access artificial intelligence, but it's a proprietary system rather than using OpenAI like many other companies do. Creating its own LLM meant that Hapiko was able to integrate what Gupta calls “bottlenecks”:
“There's a lot of guardrails and a lot of proprietary software built into our box now, but basically you can think of it this way: there's a system where the child says a clue, the clue is translated into text, the text is translated into an image, and the image comes back.
“So there are a couple of bottlenecks in this process. This is the bottleneck where the text is created and you can scan what's in the text. Then you can do secure filtering. (Then) there's a tooltip that goes from the text to the image and you can scan it and see what's in the image.”
Stickerbox teaches children an important lesson about how to create instructions for an artificial intelligence engine. If the sticker is not exactly what they imagined, they need to think about how to edit the clue to get the desired result.
While you can do the same with any chatbot, the print element requires hardware connection and needs the guiding hand of a parent to oversee the process and may need to explain some sensitive topics.
We took a deep look into the future of this box – how parents and teachers received it, how they overcame some of the challenges and questions that arose early on, and what the future holds in this fast-growing AI-powered toy space… and how Hapico had to give up some features to bring this product to market safely.
