CES 2025: Pinwheel launches child-friendly smartwatch with built in AI chatbot
The firm is expanding its range of child-safe devices having launched its smartphone in the UK late last year.
A specially designed smartwatch for children, which is loaded with safety features and a “kid-safe” version of ChatGPT has been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas.
The Pinwheel Watch is the first wearable from the child-friendly tech firm, after it launched its two smartphone options in the UK late last year.
Unlike the phones, which have Pinwheel software layered on top of existing Samsung and Google handsets, Watch is Pinwheel’s first original hardware and includes a vetted app store, remote location tracking for parents and allows them to monitor text messages.
The device also includes cameras and a special version of ChatGPT, which Pinwheel says is stripped back to only offer age-appropriate answers. All interactions between a child and the chatbot can be remotely monitored by a parent.
Pinwheel founder and chief executive Dane Witbeck told the PA news agency the company had heard feedback from its customers that some did not want their children to have a phone, but rather a watch they could keep for longer and still get access to parts of the digital world, but without the obvious dangers of being online.
“There’s a lot of smartwatches that have come out recently, but this one is unique in a few ways,” Mr Witbeck told PA.
“It’s got AI built into it from the get go for kids.
“We’re all excited about generative AI and what it’s doing for adults, but like many technologies that are built for adults first, kids are an afterthought.
“So what we’ve done is put a safety layer inside it between us and OpenAI, and we make sure that all the content that comes through PinwheelGPT is kid-safe, kid-appropriate.”
He continued: “That means smaller vocabulary, shorter answers and no inappropriate responses or controversial topics – so it will opt out of anything that you would really not want a kid to find out about from AI: religion, politics, sexual things in nature – anything like that – it will just say you should find a trusted adult to talk about that with.
“Most of the watches that are out there are for young children – they’re colourful, they’re chunky, they’re built very cheaply. This watch is really targeted to be a phone replacement.
“We’ve heard from our customers that they want the watch for their kids longer – they don’t want it to last just until they’re nine, 10 – they want it to scale into middle school, so that’s a different set of features for that kid.”
He added that as a result, Pinwheel had made the watch more sleek and “not look kiddie at all”, as well as including cameras and 4G support so it can be used as a fully functioning phone as children get older and start wanting to communicate with friends in that way.
“It’s a product really well suited for today’s parents,” Mr Witbeck said.
Generative AI being added to devices has been a key trend of this year’s CES, despite concerns about the safety of the technology and the impact it could have on online safety in the short term, and even human jobs in the long term.
Asked how Pinwheel approached the issue of including AI tools in a product made for children, Mr Witbeck said it was a “balancing act” the company was familiar with.
“We want to open up the world to our kids and to give them the capability of technology and then train them on technology, but we want to keep them safe,” he said.
“AI actually, is an answer this this age-old question of how to do this with web scale information, and when I realised that I got very excited about it, because I think parents have been battling with this for 30 years – wanting to give their kids internet access essentially, but the internet is not safe.
“So AI is a great answer to that, giving them specifically the answer they want. It is web scale in that it could answer anything, but the way we’ve written the safety layer really keeps the kids safe and out of harm’s way.
“The way I think about it with my own kids is I want them to have this period of time when they can make mistakes in a safe place and there these mistakes are not going to cause too much harm.”
