Do A.I. chatbots packaged inside cute-looking plushies offer a viable alternative to screen time for kids?

That’s how the companies selling these A.I.-powered kiddie companions are marketing them, but The New York Times’ Amanda Hess has some reservations. She recounts a demonstration in which Grem, one of the offerings from startup Curio, tried to bond with her. (Curio also sells a plushie named Grok, with no apparent connection to the Elon Musk-owned chatbot.)

Hess writes that this is when she knew, “I would not be introducing Grem to my own children.” As she talked to the chatbot, she became convinced it was “less an upgrade to the lifeless teddy bear” and instead “more like a replacement for me.”

She also argues that while these talking toys might keep kids away from a tablet or TV screen, what they’re really communicating is that “the natural endpoint for [children’s] curiosity lies inside their phones.”

Hess reports that she did, eventually, let her kids play with Grem — but only after she’d removed and hidden the voice box. They still talked to it and played games with it; then they were ready for some TV.