The recent news story about an AI teddy which said something weird and creepy reminded me of this story! Although the character of Teddy is not like that, as he operates within the confines of his programming and is quite simple, as far as robots go. I really don’t understand why anyone would buy AI toys for their children, but I suppose as the technology improves, all toys will have it and future generations will be brought up by AI instead of by their parents and will play with AI instead of other children, and will expect AI to do their thinking, rather than use their own brains. Anyway, we have taken a sinister turn, so let’s get on to the story.

First published in Harper’s Bazaar (UK) in 1969, the story is short but impactful. The future is overcrowded, but people are lonelier than ever. The richest can eat whatever they want and stay slim, thanks to a robotic tapeworm. They can change their holographic windows to lovely views, rather than the dreadful reality. Narrated in the third person, the story alternates between Henry Swinton (who is involved with developing and marketing artificial life), housewife Monica, and their son David. Monica is having difficulty bonding with David, who is trying to express his love for her. Teddy is a sort of go-between, and I always assumed he’s the ‘supertoy’ of the title, but I wonder if it’s actually David. If you’ve seen the film AI: Artificial Intelligence (I’ve written a ‘film of the book’ post about it) you’ll know that David is a robot, a stand-in for a real child. However, this is not revealed in the story until near the end, which makes it emotionally stirring because it’s not written as if he’s a robot. Nor is he aware of this, beyond asking Teddy if they are both real. As David is taken back to the factory for a reset, I thought he might be the supertoy, discarded when something better comes along (the Swintons are granted permission to reproduce). Teddy has been working fine, so he’ll be kept, we assume as a companion to the real child.

What I find quite interesting about older stories about robots is that they run very logically and keep within some kind of rules, even if they go rogue, whereas artificial intelligence today keeps on learning and seems to make its own decisions in ways that can be harmful.

I’ve read the story in two anthologies, We, Robots and Deadly Dolls. It’s also currently free to read on the author’s website.