Scoop: Mattel is still deciding what its first AI toy will be
Mattel is teaming up with OpenAI to create AI-enabled toys, but don't expect to unwrap a ChatGPT Barbie this winter holiday, a source tells Axios.
Between the lines: Mattel hasn't decided if its first AI product will be a toy, a "digital experience" or something else — and hasn't picked which brand to start with.
Driving the news: OpenAI and Mattel on Thursday announced a partnership to give Mattel workers access to ChatGPT Enterprise and collaborate on "AI-powered products and experiences,"
Zoom in: A small team at Mattel's El Segundo, CA headquarters is working on the project, which is still in its early stages, the source said.
Mattel hopes to reveal its first AI product this year, but it likely won't hit shelves until later, the source said.
One thing is clear: The first product won't be for kids under 13—a move that helps Mattel avoid stricter regulations and sidestep criticism over marketing AI to young children.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
34 minutes ago
- Forbes
Meta Could Spend Majority Of AI Budget On Scale As Part Of $14 Billion Deal
Alexandr Wang will step down as Scale AI to join Meta and lead a new AI lab. Last night, Scale AI announced that Meta would acquire a 49 percent stake in it for $14.3 billion — a seismic move to support Meta's sprawling AI agenda. But there's more to the agreement for Scale than a major cash infusion and partnership. Forbes has learned that Meta intends to pay Scale at least $450 million a year for five years for its AI products, or more than half of its annual AI spend, whichever is less, according to a person who worked on the deal. Scale AI declined to comment. Meta didn't respond to a comment request. That commitment from Meta would make up a major part of Scale's revenue. Last year, Scale generated $870 million in revenue, largely driven by demand for its data labelling services. This year, the company expected to generate $2 billion in revenue, Bloomberg previously reported. But on Thursday, Forbes first reported Thursday that OpenAI, which still has contracts with Scale, had been winding down its spend on the company's services in recent months as it searched for new partners better suited to its needs (Scale denied the claim). The agreement with Meta could help Scale fill a potential revenue hole should OpenAI or customers like Anthropic and Microsoft consider revising their contracts with the company or allowing them to expire now that it had such close ties with a major competitor. Alexandr Wang, Scale's cofounder and CEO, and one of the world's youngest billionaires at age 28, is set to join Meta to lead its AI lab, where he will lead an effort to develop a so-called superintelligence, an AI system that outperforms human capabilities. The Meta deal is a major and unexpected turning point for Scale, which Wang has led since its founding in 2016. During his tenure, Scale built an army of clickworkers to train AI data models, which proved an essential tool for AI giants building LLMs and other applications. More recently, Wang led Scale's foray into national security, landing a series of contracts with the Pentagon to help the military implement AI models and use the technology for training and planning. Now, under new CEO Jason Droege, who launched Uber Eats, and previously was an executive at law enforcement technology company Axon, Scale — which some had hoped might be a 2025 IPO candidate — has tethered its future and founder to Meta's AI ambitions.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
South Korean Stargate-like project could bolster US security alliance, tech exec says
South Korea's new president should work with American tech giants to pursue a Stargate-like artificial intelligence partnership — as a matter of global security, according to a Korean tech executive. After six months of political chaos and paralysis in South Korea, President Lee Jae-myung took over last week following snap elections, with ambitious plans for the country's AI sector, including a 100 trillion won (nearly $74 billion) fund aimed at turning the country into one of the top three AI powers globally. In an interview with Semafor, Jeff Kim, a leading AI figure in South Korea who helped advise Lee's party on AI during the election through policy forums, detailed a roadmap for how he expects the new government could approach the sector. Kim, the CEO of AI-powered travel platform Yanolja Cloud and a board member of the Korean AI-Software Association, said Lee wants to turn Korea into an 'AI-driven state.' 'That means everyone should be using AI and everything should be made with AI,' Kim said, adding that a possible government-led AI service platform could allow companies to connect their tools. The new president has previously said he wants to appoint an AI policy chief and develop a 'Korea-tailored ChatGPT,' which would be free to the public and could rapidly generate data. The 100 trillion won fund will have to be a mix of private and public capital, Kim said: 'It's impossible to make the fund only from the public side.' He envisions a project similar to Stargate, the $500 billion venture to build AI infrastructure in the US spearheaded by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank — which is one of Yanolja's backers. Last month, officials announced a version of Stargate in the United Arab Emirates. Through the Korean fund, Kim said local AI-related companies and Silicon Valley cloud service providers could collaborate to support data center buildout in Korea — an 'AI highway' — to power the rising demand for chatbots and AI models. This 'symbolizes the deepening of the US security alliance as well,' he said, reflecting how large-scale AI compute has become a strategic geopolitical resource. South Korea has a highly tech-literate population that has shown strong adoption of AI. OpenAI said last month it is setting up its first office in Seoul, noting growing demand for chatbots: The country has the largest number of paid ChatGPT subscribers outside the US. But experts see the highly digitized nation as lagging in the AI race behind the US and China. Political gridlock slowed many of the previous government's AI efforts, and former President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment further diverted attention. Some economists are skeptical of Lee's lofty AI ambitions, including whether it can raise 100 trillion won, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. 'Before debating budgets or regulations, the country must define whether it aims to replicate existing technologies or lead original innovation,' one expert said. The success of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which made the case for building a powerful model on a smaller budget, energized South Korea's frontier AI scene, with startups rushing to create homegrown models, Foreign Policy wrote. OpenAI has said it is open to working with to build on the Stargate venture and support local data center capacity, Data Centre Dynamics wrote.
CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
I Tried Tasty's AI-Powered Recipe Remixes to Spice Up My Usual Meals
I'm a creature of habit when it comes to food. At the restaurants I frequent I always know what I'm going to order, and at home I have a set rotation of meals. It's not that I'm unadventurous. It's just that I like knowing I'll love what I eat. And my creative abilities don't extend to the kitchen. Ask me to write a short story before a recipe. My weapon of choice is the pen, not the pan. To save money, I'm eating at home 90% of the time, and while I have my staple daily dishes, I love variety throughout the week, to keep my wandering tastebuds happy. (I blame all those years of travel. It spoiled my palate.) In the past, I've experimented with an artificial intelligence recipe generator, which can turn a photo of a restaurant meal into a recipe you can prepare in your own kitchen. Now I wanted to see what a tool called Recipe Remixes could serve up. Recipe Remixes is a new AI-powered feature in food network Tasty's app, and it shows you several variations of classic Tasty recipes. You get three different renditions per recipe. You can also prompt it to make the recipe easier, more nutritious or more flavorful. Tasty is leaning into its community's tips and tricks to help others improve their cooking and amplify community submissions via AI. The feature launched in March 2025, via the Tasty iOS app, and it's free to use. Recipe Remixes leverages OpenAI's GPT-4o mini model. Spin dishes like a DJ First, I downloaded the Tasty app and created an account. It'll ask you a few questions, like whether you're a vegetarian and what's important to you when cooking. You can scroll through the recipe recommendations or use the search bar if you're in the mood for something specific. Keep in mind, the app will prompt you to add ingredients to a cart to place an order via its grocery partner, Walmart. Simply ignore this if you're just playing around with recipes. I clicked on a recipe I probably have once a week (honey soy-glazed salmon) to see the interface. The strength of this app is the community tips and comments, as there are approximately 600,000 monthly users of the Tasty app. Each recipe has a video, photos, an ingredients list, instructions, tips from other people using Tasty and, now, the Remixes feature. Tasty/Screenshot by CNET Given that I didn't necessarily want to add more sweetness or citrus to my salmon, I prompted the feature to "make it more nutritious." Here's what Tasty's AI tool suggested: Tasty/Screenshot by CNET It would be good to see the new nutrient information, like what's displayed in the original recipe. But I do like how it has a rationale for why it's made specific changes. Can AI make recipes fancier? Next, I picked the simple scrambled eggs dish, to see how fancy Tasty's AI could make it. I selected the "surprise me" prompt. Tasty / Screenshot by CNET The twist? Adding cheese. Not groundbreaking, but delicious, I'm sure. I would've been more impressed with something unexpected, like a drizzle of honey. I explored the lunch recipes but realized they're probably too elaborate for me, especially on weekdays. Even though I work from home much of the time, I'm just not the kind of person who cooks a birria baked potato. Can AI make recipes more nutritious? I have a current obsession with anything ube, so when I came across a purple sweet potato latte, I had to try it. I chose to "make it more nutritious" because I know these colorful drinks can be a sugar bomb. Tasty/Screenshot by CNET The feature added protein powder, which I liked, but it removed the star of the show: the sweetened condensed milk. It also switched whole milk for the almond milk, which will probably create a watery consistency instead of that creaminess. I'm not sure, either, if cocoa will overwhelm sweet potato or work well. I would've preferred a reduced amount of condensed milk, half the caffeine, and half-and-half instead of whole milk (maybe I'm better at remixing recipes myself than I thought). Can AI make recipes easier? I tried using AI to remix one more recipe: a homemade chicken shawarma wrap that I'd have for lunch. It's cool to see a recipe's popular tips for remix suggestions, like "make it garlicky," "make it thyme-based," "make it easier" and "make it more nutritious." They were good suggestions, but I wasn't about to make my lunch more garlicky. My poor wife. Tasty/Screenshot by CNET I opted for "make it easy," as I like quick lunches. This was the original ingredients list: Tasty/Screenshot by CNET Then, the remixed version to make it easier: Tasty/Screenshot by CNET I didn't love how it suggested a store-bought marinade, because the only thing that did was remove the need to use a bunch of different spices -- most of which I already have at home. But it definitely made the white sauce part easier, by reducing the number of ingredients needed. The verdict on using AI to switch up your recipes Though I enjoyed the user-generated tips, the range of recipes, and the various ways to mix up a meal, I would've loved a little more customization. It would be cool to have a chatbot feature, where I could give feedback on the remixed recipe and get it to a point where I was happy with it. I was also hoping to be able to input common meals I make and have the AI remix them, rather than have to choose from a catalog of recipes, 95% of which I'd never cook. As with most AI features, it's a handy tool to have for coming up with ideas, but I can certainly cook without it.
