Hello Barbie brings the classic doll squarely into the twenty-first century. Like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, Barbie can listen to your voice and react with the appropriate response, almost as if she were alive. When revealed earlier in the year, there was concern that childrens’ voices would be eavesdropped by hackers, or that Barbie could be made to say awful things by outside forces. Plus, popular as she is, Barbie undoubtedly carries some social stigmas(Opens in a new window). Will Hello Barbie, which talks using Wi-Fi to connect to the cloud to transmit recorded dialog, reinforce stereotypes around beauty and image? And what about those security concerns? I got a chance to meet with the makers of Hello Barbie, Mattel and ToyTalk, to find out and interact with the $74.99 doll ahead of its launch in November.

Design
Realistic body image is a concern in the twenty-first century, but Barbie still retains her rail-like, 11.5-inch figure and perfect, fluffy hair. There will be models with different skin tones and hair colors available, so there’s that at least.

As you can see in the pictures, Hello Barbie’s fashion sense is fairly modern: skinny jeans with a simple tee beneath a jacket. There’s a Power button on the side of her belt, as well as a Microphone button on the front of the belt that you must press and hold to activate speech recognition. The actual microphone and speaker are placed in Barbie’s necklace. The necklace houses a series of three LED lights that blink when Barbie’s conversational mode is activated. Besides that, you can accessorize her jacket, jewelry, and style her hair, but the rest of her apparel can’t be changed. Hello Barbie comes with a pod-like induction base for charging and a single charge lasts approximately an hour.

Let’s Talk Security
Representatives from Mattel and ToyTalk did their best to assuage fears about privacy and hacking when I met with them to check out the forthcoming toy. The first thing ToyTalk insisted I understand is that Hello Barbie ($133.49 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is not always on, so she’s not always listening. In order to interact with her, you need to hold a button on Barbie’s belt to activate voice recognition. Take your thumb off the button and Barbie won’t listen, similar to a walkie talkie.

For extra security, a companion app is required to use Hello Barbie, in tandem with a connection to a password-protected Wi-Fi signal. A password is also required to access a storage site, where the entirety of the child’s recorded dialogue is stored (more on this in a moment). On top of that, when a child speaks to Barbie, the doll reaches out through a secure HTTPS connection that confirms the doll’s authenticity with the cloud. If Hello Barbie gets modified, say, by a hacker, or the passwords are incorrect, the toy will not speak. Hello Barbie isn’t vulnerable to simple attacks, like those performed by the Barbie Liberation Organization(Opens in a new window) in the early 90s, so don’t expect to hear her suddenly talking like G.I. Joe.

There are a few other guardrails. Everything Barbie says is heavily produced, pre-recorded content, so Barbie won’t start slinging off the cuff, Chucky(Opens in a new window)-style insults or anything like that. Plus, everything the child says is converted into audio files that are stored on a Web service that parents have access to. Mom or dad can play the files back, or delete the files individually as they see fit.

Interestingly, parents can also tailor what Hello Barbie talks about—meaning they have access to and control over all 8,000 lines of dialogue that Hello Barbie can potentially speak. That way, parents can sift through and decide whether the dialogue is appropriate for their child or not. There is even a 24-hour customer service line to call, as well as a dedicated site, in case there are any issues.

Tethering the doll to an app and burying the whole process underneath a torrent of passwords, thus making parents the gatekeepers, is definitely the right move. Barring any catastrophic hacking events or security failures, it seems Mattel and ToyTalk have Hello Barbie locked down pat. 

Here’s How Barbie Talks
What separates Hello Barbie from pull-string toys of old is that everything you say to Hello Barbie gets sent to the cloud, so the toy can eventually learn new replies. Everything Hello Barbie says is voiced by an actress in a recording booth, directed by a director, and guided by a team of writers with backgrounds from companies like Disney LucasFilm, Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street. 

But don’t imagine a NASA-like headquarters filled with writers listening in on kids’ conversations in real-time. Rather, the team at ToyTalk will pull the voice files from the cloud, aggregate the most common questions and subjects broached, and update Hello Barbie accordingly. If children are asking more about pomegranate trees or Greek mythology, for example, the next round of updates to Hello Barbie will include dialogue trees dedicated to those subjects. The companies weren’t clear on the exact plans, but content packs with themes such as “Holidays” are not out of the question. So, if it’s Christmas time, Barbie might ask you what’s on the top of your gift list. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, you can simply configure that topic out of Barbie’s repertoire. There should be no big app updates; instead, Barbie’s new content will weave in with the rest of her responses seamlessly. Mattel and ToyTalk claim Hello Barbie already has 8,000 lines of dialogue ready for launch.

Millennial Actress
Barbie spoke in a conversational, inquisitive tone throughout the time I spent with her. She asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” To which one of the ToyTalk representatives replied, “I wanna be a scientist!” Barbie asked why. The rep explained, “I want to discover new things.” Then Barbie beamed, “Oh, like Marie Curie,” followed by a lengthy monologue about the greatness of girls getting into science. Then Barbie asked about animals, eventually dovetailing the topic into zoology: “Have you ever visited a zoo? A zoo is where you can see animals from all over the world!”

Barbie says all of this in an excited tone, like she’s hoping that whoever’s listening will catch onto her joy and continue the conversation. Listening closely, I could almost hear the intent in Mattel and ToyTalk’s goal: to make a progressive and educational Barbie for the twenty-first century—one that’s hooked up to the cloud and gives off the appearance of artificial intelligence. The actress and the writers have done a very good job, but Hello Barbie most likely won’t pass the Voight-Kampff(Opens in a new window) test from Blade Runner that detects a human from an android. She’s still a doll.

But at least she’s a doll for the times. The Marie Curie(Opens in a new window) name drop was great, and really odd to hear come out of a toy. It made me recall the scene in Enchanted where Patrick Dempsey’s daughter callously tosses aside a book about that famous scientist. The movie follows with Amy Adams leading everyone in a maniacal dance, free of the burden of scientific curiosity. Mattel and ToyTalk are running in the other direction, using Barbie to talk about STEM subjects as well as personal issues such as self-esteem, bullies, and family. Of course, there are still topics about fluffy animals as well.

Along with the Star Wars Sphero BB-8 Droid ($199.86 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , it looks like app-enabled, Wi-Fi-connected toys are on the rise. If Hello Barbie proves successful, I expect other toy companies will add similar connected playthings to their lineups. We’ll take a closer look at Hello Barbie when it becomes available, so check back then for a complete review.

Video credit: Chip Chick