An expressive humanoid social robot for children with special needs and autism has helped a Luxemburg-based company win the UAE’s Smart Toys Competition.
LuxAI will receive support from the UAE’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR UAE) for its disruptive robotic solutions for education and healthcare.
With its QTRobot, the firm competed to help solve challenges faced by children of determination in their learning and integration into society.
The winner will receive support from the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) and Abu Dhabi’s Early Childhood Authority (ECA) in developing its toy concepts and prototypes, and piloting them with relevant entities in the UAE.
The contest
Launched earlier this year in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), the ECA and the National Programme for Artificial Intelligence, the competition called on local and global start-ups as well as early-stage SMEs that design smart toys powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Companies competed in four categories: Health and Nutrition, Family Support, Child Protection, and Early Care and Education.
Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said: “AI-powered toys have tremendous potential benefits for children’s learning, play, and growth. The World Economic Forum launched the Generation AI project that focuses on responsible and innovative AI for children and youth. We believe that smart toys should be designed ethically and responsibly to protect, educate, and empower children.
“With the rapid pace of technological change around the world, even toys are quickly changing. Artificial intelligence is transforming the world and also transforming children’s toys and childhood itself.”
Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the DFF, stressed the role of the Smart Toy Competition to encourage innovation in AI. He said it will enhance efforts to design solutions that empower, engage children of determination and help them reach their developmental goals.
Belhoul said: “The competition provides an ideal platform for building synergies with innovators and creators, especially AI solution developers … The aim (is) designing the future, promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, facilitating knowledge transfer and leveraging future tools to develop effective solutions to the challenges facing vital sectors, such as education, health and community inclusion.”
© Khaleej Times
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