Hands on with Stickerbox, the AI-powered sticker maker for kids

Summary

There’s a new AI-powered toy for kids called Stickerbox, and, before you groan, I’m here to report that it’s surprisingly fun. Stickerbox, a product born out of Brooklyn-based startup Hapiko, is a voice-activated sticker printer. The device takes whatever creative idea you have in your head and transforms it into a printed sticker that you can then color, peel, and stick anywhere. Before trying the device itself, I have to admit I came with a preconceived negative bias — as did my fellow tester (my daughter). Our initial reactions were similiar: “An AI that prints stickers? I’d rather design and print my own.” After trying the review unit sent by the company, we were won over. Stickerbox, I realized, could represent a new form of creative play — and one that doesn’t outsource the child’s imagination to an AI model as much as you’d think. Image Credits:TechCrunch Testing the AI sticker printer The $99.99 toy itself is a small, bright red box with a black-and-white screen and a big, white “push-to-talk” button on top. It ships with three rolls of paper, which equates to 180 stickers, as well as a power cord and colored pencils. The box’s color scheme is reminiscent of the Etch A Sketch, which makes sense, given that the Stickerbox feels like a modern spin on that concept. In the Etch A Sketch’s case, you have to learn how to control different knobs to create the image in your mind. With Stickerbox, those “knobs” are replaced with something more abstract: the voice commands you use to prompt the AI model. Kids aren’t thinking about how to be better prompt engineers, of course; they’re just exploring their imagination and having fun seeing their ideas come to life. Any improvement in their prompting abilities is a side effect. To initially set up the device, a parent will need to help. Much like adding a smart speaker to your home’s Wi-Fi, you have to first connect to the Stickerbox’s Wi-Fi, then enter the information to connect with your home network. The setup process...