Mattel just announced a deal with OpenAI, and that means Christmas morning 2025 could feature Barbie, Hot Wheels, or UNO cards that actually talk back.
Jenny and Greg do a rapid-fire tour of 50 years of “smart” toys—Speak & Spell, Teddy Ruxpin, Furby, Hello Barbie—and then demo Gabo, a $99 plush robot powered by a GPT.
Along the way they test parental safeguards, reminisce about 80s smart toy price tags, and debate whether subscriptions for doll-brains are the new AA batteries.
🧸🤖 Takeaways
The price point is (almost) right. $99 is today’s “$20 toy,” but if Mattel piles on monthly fees, that’s gonna suck.
Offline matters. An on-device mini-model beats a plushie that needs 5G to pronounce monkey in Spanish (it’s “mono”).
Guardrails are the new batteries. From Furby’s rumored eavesdropping to Gabo’s COPPA-approved refusals, parents now judge toys by the content filter, not the squeaker.
📊 Your Turn
Take the poll below, and we’ll talk about your votes on a future episode!
💌 BEFORE YOU GO
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See you on the internet,
Jenny and Greg Swan
The Cave Project
P.S. Favorite thing on the internet this week? Jenny’s obsessed with comedian Ceci Kane’s toddler “Am I the A**hole?” solo-podcast sketches; Greg’s busy binge-watching humanoid robots play three-on-three soccer in Beijing. What’s yours?
🎙️ Check out The Cave Project Archives
If you’re just joining us, welcome! We’re on Season 2 of The Cave Project — a movement exploring the nuance of our modern-day reality and the tension of our technological future with Jenny and Greg Swan. Learn more about us here. Check out the archives here.
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