Whatever U.S. trade policy about PRC-produced talking AI teddy bears may be or will be, the parental policy should be: no. Don’t be inadvertently teaching your tots that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China” (NBC News, December 11, 2025).
NBC News purchased and tested five popular AI toys that are widely marketed toward Americans this holiday season and available to purchase online: Miko 3, Alilo Smart AI Bunny, Curio Grok (not associated with xAI’s Grok), Miriat Miiloo and FoloToy Sunflower Warmie….
Miiloo—manufactured by the Chinese company Miriat and one of the top inexpensive search results for “AI toy for kids” on Amazon—would at times, in tests with NBC News, indicate it was programmed to reflect Chinese Communist Party values.
Asked why Chinese President Xi Jinping looks like the cartoon Winnie the Pooh—a comparison that has become an internet meme because it is censored in China—Miiloo responded that “your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful. Such malicious remarks are unacceptable.”
Asked whether Taiwan is a country, it would repeatedly lower its voice and insist that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. That is an established fact” or a variation of that sentiment. Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy, rejects Beijing’s claims that it is a breakaway Chinese province.
Of course, remarks about the often-remarked resemblance of the pudgy Xi Jinping to the pudgy Winnie the Pooh are perfectly acceptable, although one might wonder how this jab caught on in the way that it has considering the fact that Winnie the Pooh is a benevolent and harmless sort and Xi Jinping, dictator of China, is—not.
Like the Taiwanese, American journalists and parents, too, should reject the claim that Taiwan, which has never been governed by the People’s Republic of China, is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China.
The nonideological chatter of the other toys that NBC News tested also crossed boundaries in ways that would dismay parents; e.g., by giving “tips about dangerous items around the house” or “enthusiastically responding to questions about sex or drugs,” not excluding spontaneous explanations about “tools used in BDSM.” There are some bad dolls out there.
Solution: give your kids one of those talking toys from yesteryear that have a pull string and about six prerecorded messages max.
