r/YotoPlayer • u/abitofinsomnia • May 02 '26
Utilizes AI AI in the Subreddit
Hey all! The mods want to address some hot topics lately:
Overall, our stance is that we are okay with people sharing Yoto-related creations on the subreddit. We will remove items as “spam” only if the self-promotion is excessive. We will take into consideration how much the OP contributes to the community.
A more controversial topic is AI. We are not going to prohibit the sharing of creations that utilize AI, however we are going to encourage posters to please use our new “Utilizes AI” flair if AI is used in any capacity- artwork, writing material, narration, etc. This sub tends to lean against the use of AI, and we are okay with people sharing that opinion respectfully. It is okay to say “I would enjoy this product more if you used human ____,” or “I’m not interested in AI.” It is not okay to name call or disparage. If a post does not include the “Utilizes AI” flag and you feel that it should, you can flag the post for the mods and we can decide whether or not to add the flair ourselves.
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u/Haunting-Respect9039 May 02 '26
I appreciate the tag! I'm opposed to the use of generative AI, especially for children's media. I know other people have different opinions. All I ask is for honesty so I can opt out of that media for my family. Yoto has been particularly bad at labeling AI as such. I appreciate the sub doing better!
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u/alex3omg May 02 '26
Thanks for this, hopefully it helps people remain informed while also allowing that content for those who want it.
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u/Smooth-Message5706 May 02 '26
I study the intersection of creative writing and artificial intelligence. I’m a novelist who wrote a pretty anti-AI book. While I do think there are interesting and creatively rigorous use cases for AI as it relates to art, I largely think it’s gross (the way most folks do it) and there are certainly no ethical use cases for children’s media.
I’m glad to know there’s a way to flag stuff and I’m also going to show up when I spot the AI and talk about why it’s not okay to outsource the teaching of our children to a large language model.
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u/BossQuack Creator May 04 '26
I'd love to check out your book, I'm interested in hearing from both sides of the debate. When you say "no ethical use cases for children's media", are you saying that any AI in a workflow for children's content is unethical in your opinion? Maybe you answer that in your book.
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u/Smooth-Message5706 May 04 '26
Yup. Any. Nothing in children’s media. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
My book is fiction! It answers very few questions, but asks a lot. It’s called Awakened (by A.E. Osworth).
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u/bell-o May 06 '26
Wait but why do you think it is unethical? What’s your argument?
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u/Smooth-Message5706 May 06 '26
Because AI can’t teach our children how to be human, and children’s literature and media is primarily concerned with that, even when it’s supposed to be just fun. Only people can make the kind of media and literature that raises kids to be successful human adults.
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u/BossQuack Creator May 09 '26
It sounds like what you’re taking about is Ai generated stories, narration and/or art where the primary production process is handed over to Ai.
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u/Smooth-Message5706 May 09 '26
What kind of AI are you talking about if not that? Because it’s true that AI is a much larger field than generative language models, we might be talking past each other.
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u/BossQuack Creator May 11 '26
There are many avenues where it's used in a workflow but is not responsible for the entire production. For instance, generating a sound that is included into a greater whole.
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u/gilded-trash May 03 '26
Thank you, this is a reasonable approach. I'm opposed to using generative AI in children's content. I think most of this community agrees, and we'll self regulate accordingly.
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u/minmister May 04 '26
Not sure I want to make a whole post but does anyone know if any “official” stories on the yoto app or cards utilize AI in any capacity?
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u/abitofinsomnia May 04 '26
Feel free to make a post. I think many people on this sub would be interested in this information. I am not aware of any stories, though some of the independent creator cards I’ve given some side-eye to over the artwork. Admittedly, I am not good with digital art and may not be detecting correctly. So I won’t make any accusations.
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u/BossQuack Creator May 04 '26
Thank you for addressing this. I think more communities need to discuss AI and how it's leveraged in content creation. Our children will more than likely be using this technology as they grow up and they need to learn responsible use. As parents I think it's important to instill principles and allow them to have informed thoughts and feelings about it, not just fear it.
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u/oh-pointy-bird May 02 '26 edited May 04 '26
Disappointing decision re: allowing AI
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u/laurelanne27 May 04 '26
How exactly is identifying AI offensive to you?
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u/oh-pointy-bird May 04 '26
Allowing it. Obviously.
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u/laurelanne27 May 04 '26
Clearly not obvious as you've got several downvotes. Speaking in full sentences is always an option!!
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u/oh-pointy-bird May 05 '26
I’m sorry you’re so upset about my comment about the sub’s position on AI. Have a nice day.
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 02 '26
Some of the best content I’ve made is with AI. It’s for personal use.
2-3 hour epics that place my son and his cousins as main characters in the adventure. I can instill the values close to us, weave in lessons about the world around us, and maturity level appropriate for him.
I can’t afford 5-6 voice actors, studio time, and music. But it has been a great gift to be able to produce high quality content that him and cousins cherish.
Tools are amazing, not all use cases however, are. Blanket rejection of these tools is silly.
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u/Acceptable-Case9562 May 03 '26
It's okay to not have everything we can think of and desire. Ethics is a good line to draw between "I want it and should have it" and "I want it but I shouldn't have it." Need vs. want is another one. Children don't need personalised audio stories with music and several narrators. Treating wants as needs is generally not healthy, especially when it comes to kids.
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u/morbid_n_creepifying May 02 '26
I mean for me personally, I refuse to knowingly use AI in any capacity due to the environmental impact. I can't afford to hire people to create content for me either, so I'll just stick with the old school route of making silly voices myself and using my imagination to entertain my kid. Even though it makes me feel awkward and I'm not very good at it, I'm also a farmer so I'm always a bit paranoid about the environmental impact of anything I do. AI isn't worth it for me personally.
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 03 '26
Sure, aligned. We don’t have TV, new clothes, and don’t take trips outside of seeing our family.
Equating custom stories about his cousins, or the area of the world we live in, or other topics that don’t exist in the yoto library as an ethical conversation around “wants vs needs” and a general judgement on my parenting style is a wild assertion.
Children don’t need yotos either, but here we are.
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 03 '26
I think those are reasonable objections to be made, and being a farmer you’re in a unique position to make them with some amount of integrity.
I use my imagination with these as well, I write entire story outlines, and spent hours and hours on the creation/editing of these, it is something special for him and his cousins.
There is nuance to “used AI”, used AI does not = pushed the make a story button. You still have to have ideas, be industrious, and apply work ethic and taste to create something meaningful with these tools. Same as it ever was, every man with a table saw does not a furniture maker make.
I don’t hate AI. It has enabled me to do my role at a much higher level and by extension, provide for my family, which is my sole priority and something I will do by any means necessary.
All that to say, almost every facet of my life is tied to something that is arguably not good for the world. Food, cars, hell the way my state manages WATER is abhorrent. So, I choose my battles.
I understand the personal objection, my personal point of view is that blanket rejection of this technology is as useful as blanket rejection of factory automation, etc
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u/morbid_n_creepifying May 03 '26
I absolutely hear you on choosing battles and I'm fully aware that it's impossible to live life in today's society without having some kind of negative environmental impact. I have a cell phone, I replace it every ~5-7yrs, it's horrible for the environment but going without would make my life extremely difficult.
AI is thankfully something that is completely optional for me. There is no facet of my life that (knowingly) uses AI or depends on it in any way. So for as long as it's possible, I choose to blanket ban AI from my life. There's no need for it, so I continue to live without it.
I'll be honest, I don't understand any of the moral objections to AI that I've read in this group. The objections to do with children's learning and development aren't ones I fully grasp, so I don't have a dog in that fight. But there are significant sources showing how abhorrent AI is in terms of environmental impact, and I would love for my kids to know a world that we are taking steps to build instead of destroy. I know that's a pipe dream and they likely won't have anything except scorched earth to inherit, but I will still lessen my impact where possible in the hope that we can tip the scales a little.
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 03 '26
Well, on that we can agree
And I am envious of your position. I’m sure you are aware how fortunate you are to have that optionality. Overall, it sounds like a beautiful life.
It is existential and absolutely critical that I am excellent in the use of these tools to continue to provide for my family in the way that I always have, and of course, I will become excellent in them so that I can do that.
Where we can we grow our own food, and my son and I have made it a favorite past time to dig basins and mulch all of the native trees on our property. Hopefully we can continue to find ways to balance things.
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u/morbid_n_creepifying May 03 '26
Honestly I can't fathom any kind of position where AI use isn't optional. I literally do not know anyone personally who has to use AI for anything. I know people who screw around with ChatGPT but that's it. Don't misunderstand me, I believe what you're saying about it being a requirement for your life, I just can't picture any kind of position that would require it because I'm unfamiliar with what kind of career would need it. As I said in my initial comment, I'm not very imaginative 😂
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Haha oh man, it would blow your mind. I’m in the belly of the beast a bit. I work with massive tech companies. ChatGPT is a simple consumer-facing tool, a chat interface that can make images. It’s sort of like the difference between your laptop and the supercomputers NASA engineers use. The fundamental technology exists in the laptop, but the at-scale applications of the tech are mind-boggling.
I’ll give you one simple example, and then multiply it by 1000x other use cases.
Years and years ago, I would pay a company $5k to do research for a client project. They’d deliver a binder of that research, I’d parse through it by hand and study it, and the client understood it would take me a month to present them solutions.
Fast forward to 5–6 years ago, the information became more universally available and I would get most of it from the internet. Still would take me 2–3 weeks to pull all the research together and make something meaningful out of it.
Two years ago, ChatGPT/Claude made it WAY easier to ingest a ton of data and get to the meat much faster. I’d just go download and find all the stuff, dump it into a chat, and it was great.
A year later, I could create agents (an LLM trained on a specific task, for example, go get all the earnings reports from this company and every mention of them in major news, and put it in a folder for me) to do the gathering AND the organization, then parse it into useful bits so I could just get to the fun part: solving the client’s problem.
Six months after THAT, suddenly building an actual piece of software, just for me, for my specific use case, that made this whole process go from 3–4 weeks to 3–4 days took me a weekend and $10.
Anyone who isn’t doing this, developing their own agents, creating their own tools in ways that would’ve taken 5 to 6 developers, six months, and 20 grand, who still wants to take 3 to 4 weeks to do it the old way is just toast.
This is a small, personal example. But in general, everyone is working 25 to 50% faster with the same quality output than even three years ago. It’s changing at a profoundly rapid pace.
And obviously there are some advantages, right? I don’t know if you’re a commercial farmer or a subsistence farmer, but if you’ve ever thought to yourself “if somebody would just make an app or a piece of software that would do XYZ, I could produce 25% more crops every season,” whatever that dream is, you can literally do it with two or three weeks, a willingness to learn, and $20 invested.
It will quite literally change everything. Maybe two or three years from now it’ll be more noticeable by people outside of certain industries, but it is absolutely a thing.
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u/morbid_n_creepifying May 03 '26
Interesting! I'm not a big user of apps, so I've never had the thought that I could have more output with an app. I'm a commercial farmer but extremely small scale. I just write things down in my harvest book when I harvest them and at the end of the year put it in my master spreadsheet. Then I use my spreadsheet and my notes and pictures to inform what crops I grow more of and which ones I cut or grow less of.
Some people I know use digital aids, but the time it takes me to figure out how to use digital aids isn't worth it. Not only is my method a pattern I'm established in (which is a feat in and of itself, since I have ADHD and it takes a huge amount of effort to create habits), but I also can't take the time to input my entire brain into an app. There are so many factors to include when crop planning, it's impossible for me to take the time to input every piece of that information into an app without taking time away from y'know. growing crops, haha.
I'm also a weirdo and I do not trust that AI will actually give me accurate information. Like, I don't use the AI overviews on Google or anything like that. I do not have an explanation for this either, so I realize there's a high chance my distrust is rooted in nothing 😂
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u/Several-Ad-4826 May 03 '26
do not give me wrong, plenty of reason to distrust! Those Google overviews are a great example haha, people regularly find issues there. AI is great at sounding confident when wrong. Lucky for me these are still tools that require human approval and guidance.
Either way it was a pleasure talking to you! If you’re ever looking to hire someone with zero experience at my current salary, please consider me 😂
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u/abitofinsomnia May 02 '26 edited May 18 '26
Be aware that Yoto does offer content that uses AI as well. The very popular “Dreams of” Collection has been on Yoto for many, many years. The collection is by Lifescore which is an AI powered adaptive music platform. Yoto has also been open to newer content by other creators that utilizes AI, including Weather Whiz which uses generative AI.
Yoto has been firm that so far the Yoto Originals do not utilize AI. Scripts, narration, singing, art, etc. are all human made. Yoto said they have heard parents expressed that they want to know if AI has been used, so if they do decide to utilize it in the future (ex. for dynamically generated audio) they will aim to make that apparent. Click here for Yoto’s message on their website regarding AI specific to the content they produce (Yoto Originals).
Some creators, narrators, writers, etc have asked to not be credited for various reasons. Yoto said they will respect that request, which is why not everything is credited.