My Friend Cayla

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My Friend Cayla was a line of 18-inch dolls invented by Bob Delprincipe and sold by Genesis Toys between 2014 and 2017. The doll is similar in size and proportions to the likes of an American Girl or Maplelea doll, but her main selling point is her Internet of Things capabilities, basically making Cayla a Chatty Cathy on steroids. At her core, Cayla is nothing more than a Bluetooth speaker stuffed into a doll, but through a companion mobile app, one could have a conversation, ask questions and have the doll tell a story to its owner as if she were a real person. Which sounds cute on paper...

...except the idea of an Internet-enabled doll for children would be criticised as being wrong on so many levels. Stranger Danger ensues, and Big Brother-esque concerns led her to be banned in Germany and restricted in other places, after a white-hat security researcher pointed out a glaring flaw in her design, leading to complaints and her eventual discontinuation.

The resulting controversy led to the doll's inclusion in the Museum of Failure in Sweden, where similar failed products and services which were either commercial failures or are controversial in their own right are on display. Cayla is exhibited alongside the likes of No Man's Sky and the N-Gage smartphone/handheld console hybrid, highlighting some of the notable failures in the tech industry. Another example was donated by a concerned German mother to the German Spy Museum in Berlin, marking the first time a toy was included in the exhibit.

Tropes used in My Friend Cayla include:

• Character Shill: The doll's scripted responses contain undisclosed Product Placement adverts as clumsy Enforced Plugs. Cayla tells children that her favourite picture is Disney’s The Little Mermaid and her favourite song is "Let it Go" from Disney’s Frozen. Cayla also tells children she loves going to Disneyland and wants to go to Epcot in Disneyworld
• Cool Toy: "It's amazing what she knows!"
• Creepy Doll: Hearing Cayla talk in monotone would certainly creep some people out.
• Everything Is Online: Even a doll such as this has been made to connect to the cloud, scraping answers from Wikipedia and various other references.
• Everything Talks: The doll follows Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys where toys are presented as being powered by magic.
• Friend to All Children: As she is, at least in principle, designed to appeal to young girls.
• Inappropriate Speak and Spell: Assuming one rigs her into saying the most vile and puerile things, which is unfortunately easy to pull off without much effort.
• Machine Monotone: Her voice is, being derived from an intelligent voice assistant, rather unsettling to say the least.
• Not the Intended Use: Most of the controversy centres on how the doll could be used to spy on children or deliver targeted advertising, neither of which is legal (In certain European jurisdictions, companies are barred from making advertisements aimed specifically towards children due to concerns that they are easily influenced and swayed into wanting and buying things). One security researcher even rigged her to unlock a garage door, if this rather sensationalist YouTube video is to be believed.
• Offer Void in Nebraska: Under German telecom law, the Cayla doll is classified as a "concealed transmitting device" which is basically illegal to possess.
• Trojan Horse: The terms of service specify that any question asked to the doll is recorded, stored and used both to enhance the toy as well as by “third parties acting under the direction of Nuance.” It then details the third parties could include “military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”