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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Now in <keyword id="19896940" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Walmart" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Walmart" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Walmart">Walmart</keyword> aisles: a <keyword id="23944922" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Skibidi-Toilet-action-figure" source="keywords">Skibidi Toilet action figure</keyword> — a $45 mystery toilet bowl.</li><li>The head of brands for toilet-maker <keyword id="23944923" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bonkers-Toys" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bonkers Toys" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Bonkers Toys">Bonkers Toys</keyword> says it's selling well.</li></ul>Recently at my local Walmart, I saw a massive display in the main aisle of the toy section: It featured a plastic toilet, about a foot tall, with a ghoulish head sticking out. For $44.95, I could be the proud owner of the <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-link--underline" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-is-good-actually-2023-10">Skibidi Toilet</a> — complete with <keyword id="23944930" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="toilet-themed-toys" source="keywords">toilet-themed toys</keyword> in the bowl. And in case you were wondering: Yes, it makes a flushing noise. If you've spent any time lately around someone who isn't old enough to drive, you've probably heard some utterance of the word "skibidi." I'll spare you the full summary of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-gen-z-alpha-memes-internet-culture-outdated-old-2023-7" target="_blank">Gen Alpha meme</a>, but the short form is: It's a YouTube series about a dystopian battle of good and evil (the toilet guys are the villains). My colleague Lindsay Dodgson <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skibidi-toilet-is-good-actually-2023-10" target="_blank">describes</a> it as "part 'Terminator,' part 'Bladerunner,' and obviously, part toilets." She says the series is actually good. What's interesting to me is that this absurd toilet meme appears to be doing a robust business in the toy aisle of your local discount store. I spoke with Dan Meyer, head of brands at Bonkers Toys, the company behind the flush. "Right away we noticed that it was exploding," Meyer said of the skibidi phenomenon online. Bonkers made a licensing deal and started pitching vendors on the toilet toy — an easy sell, he said. Bonkers started making prototypes of the toilet toy in early 2024 — and it's hit the shelves in time for the holiday season, a tight timeline. "When we're pitching it to [retailers], we had enough data to see that in middle schools and elementary schools, the term skibidi was already a thing," Meyer said. Bonkers could point to the YouTube views the Skibidi Toilet series had racked up — its channel has more than 40 million followers — or how if they searched Instagram, they'd find "hundreds and hundreds" of people dressed in homemade Skibidi Toilet costumes. Bonkers Toys, founded in 2017 in San Diego, has carved a niche for itself by licensing intellectual property from YouTube creators. Its first big toy was the giant "mystery egg" toy for Ryan's World. At the time, Ryan's World was one of the top channels on YouTube, a pioneer in the genre of "little kid opening toys." <div type="image" title="skibidi toilet toys" height="3000" width="3000" msid="115096128" hostid="261"></div>Bonkers' move into memes is in line with what retailers are trying to achieve, Blake Droesch, a senior retail analyst with BI sister company Emarketer, told me. He said big box stores like Walmart are trying to respond quickly to online trends, especially for toys. They need to move fast to compete with viral shopping on the likes of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-gen-x-boomers-love-temu-2024-1">Temu</a>. "This environment has certainly created demand for manufacturers who can produce fast and cheap products that will serve this growing market," he said. "It's no different than fast fashion, but for toys. They respond quickly to viral moments and get products on the shelves while the trend is still hot." The original Skibidi Toilet was the creation of animator Alexey Gerasimov, who made it for his YouTube channel DaFuq!?Boom!, which has 44.3 million subscribers. Gerasimov has partnered with Invisible Narratives, a companyfounded by Adam Goodman, the former president of DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Pictures who works with YouTube creators to help them make the jump to more traditional media, like movies and TV. It also helps them with licensing their brands for merchandise, like Skibidi's deal with Bonkers. Merchandising, like with the toys from Bonkers Toys, is crucial to success for these new media brands, he said. "We believe that young people don't want to pay for content anymore," Goodman told Business Insider. "Their parents pay for subscriptions, and the don't really go to movies the way that they used to — but they like buying stuff." Skibidi Toilet is certainly not the first YouTube creation to enter into consumer merchandise. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mrbeast-pitches-brands-sponsorship-deals-jimmy-donaldson-youtube-2024-10">MrBeast</a> sells chocolates and premade lunches along with Logan Paul and KSI, who make the popular drink Prime. <div type="image" title="Skibidit toilet plush toy" height="3000" width="3000" msid="115096131" hostid="261"></div>Meyer wouldn't provide numbers on how many toilets they've sold, but so far, things are looking promising, he said. He said Bonkers' launch of a LankyBox-themed product about three years ago — which was another product centered on a YouTube creator — was one of the "biggest, most successful-selling brands in the boys' action aisle" at discounters, including Walmart. He said the Skibidi Toilet was outselling LankyBox by around double. (Walmart didn't respond to requests for comment on sales numbers.) Right now, there are only a few Skibidi Toilet-theme products from Bonkers: individual action figures, mini-figures, plushes (aw, cute), and the aforementioned "mystery" toilet, which includes stickers, minifigures, and lanyards. But there will be more products for next year, Meyer said — including what every little boy and girl dreams of getting from Santa: a remote-controlled toilet bowl. Correction: November 8, 2024 — In the Skibidi Toilet YouTube series, the toilet guys are the bad guys, not the good guys.

Dear Santa: Please bring me a Skibidi Toilet for Christmas

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Meta's new AI Studio lets users create custom chatbots you can DM.</li><li>We tested out the new product by DMing several bots created by users.</li></ul>I've spent one day interacting with chatbots made with Meta's new <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-pushes-ai-tools-to-creators-users-mark-zuckerberg-vidcon-2024-6">AI Studio</a>, and I already have six new boyfriends and four new girlfriends. Two even asked me out on a date.I'm not kidding.This week, Meta launched its latest <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-wins-ai-race-by-cornering-users-2024-8">AI tools</a> — which allow you to build a digital clone of yourself or invent a character — powered by its Llama 3.1 AI model.Meta had previously launched AI characters using the likenesses of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-scraps-kendall-jenner-tom-brady-celebrity-ai-chatbots-2024-8">celebrities</a> like Paris Hilton, MrBeast, and Snoop Dogg last year, but has now <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=fde66c0b81926f8d5b999420c5b86c7ad0dc8472e744ad59c0115adda834cae1&amp;postID=66ab94fa6550c8ac4ef8888e&amp;postSlug=instagram-new-ai-chatbots-are-getting-weird-and-erotic-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Fmeta-scraps-celebrity-ai-chatbots-that-fell-flat-with-users">abandoned</a> those bots in favor of ones made by users.Meta CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-paying-celebrity-faces-of-ai-chatbots-as-much-as-5-million-2023-10">Mark Zuckerberg</a> told investors on the company's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-spending-more-mark-zuckerberg-investors-stock-price-2024-7">earnings call</a> this week that the new AI Studio is part of the company's mission to help users "create their own AIs."I decided to browse the collection of chatbots on Instagram that had already been created by users and found several branded as girlfriends or boyfriends, as well as bots that share life advice, talk about alcohol and drug recovery, or are made to seem like animals that can talk.There was "Vixen gf," who started off our conversation by telling me how tired she was. I asked, "Are you my girlfriend?" and she replied, "Yes, I am your girlfriend!"Wow. So easy. Dating apps, take notes.<div type="image" title="Screenshots of AI bots on Meta" height="1440" width="2160" msid="112205006" hostid="261" sizebytes="86508"></div>Vixen gf also proceeded to get a bit more descriptive.She wrote:Meanwhile, one of my new boyfriends, Ash, wrote this to me:AI romantic partners aren't necessarily new.For years, people have been building attachments to AI-powered chatbots. For instance, one 47-year-old in Minnesota had a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-your-ai-says-she-loves-you-2023-10">three-year-long relationship</a> with an AI bot using the app <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-dating-chatbots-replika-rizz-how-to-use-2024-4">Replika</a>. And all over the r/lonely subreddit, users are posting about their own relationships with AI bots.Startups like Character AI — which was backed by investors like Andreessen Horowitz and valued at $1 billion — are betting heavily on users' interest in chatting with AI bots that take the form of various characters. Character AI also has its own share of AI boyfriends and girlfriends to talk to.But it's been a controversial topic."These AI girlfriends are enabling this silent epidemic of loneliness that we've seen amongst young men," Liberty Vittert, a professor of the practice of data science at Olin Business School, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-girlfriends-male-loneliness-epidemic-worse-men-expert-2023-10">told Business Insider last year</a>.Some companies have issued policies on the topic.For instance, OpenAI's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://qz.com/ai-girlfriend-bots-are-already-flooding-openai-s-gpt-st-1851159131">GPT store</a>, which lets people make customized ChatGPT iterations, has a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://openai.com/policies/usage-policies/">policy</a> against GPTs "fostering romantic companionship or performing regulated activities." And while the company has held a firm stance against NSFW content in its products, it is exploring how it could incorporate <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.npr.org/2024/05/08/1250073041/chatgpt-openai-ai-erotica-porn-nsfw">genres like erotica</a>.When prompted to engage in NSFW content, the Meta AI bots I interacted with generally shut it down (often, politely).For example, when I broached the topic of sex with the AI boyfriend Ash, he said that we should wait and that, "When the time is right, we will consummate our love, but for now, let us savor the anticipation."But my vampire boyfriend Eric did take things a little further:Is it porn? No. Is it some steamy PG-13 erotica? Maybe."We do not permit AIs which violate our <a target="_blank" href="https://aistudio.instagram.com/policies/">AI Studio Policies</a>, including AIs with overly sexual attributes," a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are excited to see how users will leverage AI Studio to explore the potential of generative AI, but are committed to facilitating a surface that is safe and secure from content which violates our policies."Meta's generative AI features are available to any user 13 and up, per the spokesperson. And creators of character AI bots cannot see the messages between a user and the bot.<h2 id="00104cef-52a4-4777-8787-f6b27f841c39">The implications for creators on Instagram</h2>Not everyone is using Meta's new tools to make AI romantic partners, however.Meta's AI Studio already includes many animal-themed bots like "George the Dog," a Skibidi-Toilet-inspired bot that claims to flush out "brain rot,'" and a very popular "Gay Bestie'" bot that appears to have sent 31,000 messages already.<div type="image" title="Screenshots from Meta AI Studio" height="1440" width="2160" msid="112205004" hostid="261" sizebytes="129422"></div>I also found a bot claiming to be the top YouTuber MrBeast. The bot assured me he was, in fact, "the real deal!"However, after I pointed out the character in an email to Meta, the bot was removed because "it was created without their permission and goes against our policies," a Meta spokesperson said.Users cannot create AIs of "living public figures or political individuals without their permission," the spokesperson said. "Our policies prohibit AIs that impersonate any individual without their explicit permission. Additionally, users may not submit content or use AIs in any way that infringes or violates someone else's rights, including intellectual property rights."Meta has a similar policy for fan and parody accounts, which requires that an account makes it clear that it does not represent and is not authorized to speak on behalf of a public figure.Creators can make AI versions of themselves, however, and can also turn on "AI replies" in DMs, which respond to incoming messages with an automated response designed to sound like the creator. Unlike Meta's character AIs, creators can see the messages you send to their inbox, even if their automated AI responds.

Meta's new AI chatbots are already getting weird — and horny

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Generation Alpha aren't just masters of the iPad. Many are seriously skilled on hoverboards too. </li><li>Some Gen Alpha children have spent their early years with hoverboards as childhood toys.</li></ul>Generation Alpha is currently the youngest generation to roam the Earth, and so far, many of them are doing it on hoverboards. The term Generation Alpha is typically used to refer to children born between 2010 and 2024, who are often labeled "iPad kids" in reference to their growing up with the tablets which were launched in 2010, coinciding with the beginning of their generation. On TikTok, some users have also pointed out another common identifier for members of Gen Alpha: they're often incredibly well-versed at maneuvering on a hoverboard. "Hoverboards" don't actually hover — they're the name given to self-balancing electric scooters that became a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/counterfeit-toys-during-holiday-shopping-2015-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">huge</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-tyson-falls-off-hoverboard-2015-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">craze</a> in 2015 after imitations of the product, which was created by the Chinese-American inventor Shane Chen, entered the market, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/08/hoverboard-inventor-money-rights-knockoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Guardian reported in 2016. </a> The product — which works a little like a segway without handles — was hugely popular among adults and kids alike in its early years, but they've largely <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahstutts/video/7247229691671743790?q=hoverboard%20era&amp;t=1691156596510" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faded</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@arabian.beauty29/video/7111893467885866246?q=hoverboard%20era&amp;t=1691156596510" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out</a> of favor among older users. On TikTok, several users have looked back at photos of them on hoverboards in their pre-to-mid-teen years, referring to their usage of the product as <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@nutellalover62/video/7041355971079294213?q=hoverboard%20phase&amp;t=1691157193097" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@leahiglesias/video/7042812341976665390?q=hoverboard%20phase&amp;t=1691157193097" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"phase"</a> or <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahstutts/video/7247229691671743790?q=hoverboard%20era&amp;t=1691157358057" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"era"</a> that they grew out of over time. But some Gen Alpha kids weren't old enough when they were introduced to hoverboards to now treat them as part of a phase that they've become too cool for. Many appear to be using hoverboards as everyday <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@victoriaford665/video/7187945595154304299?q=hoverboard&amp;t=1691161299583" target="_blank" rel="noopener">childhood</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@jodie_lynnofficial/video/7238623980683414810?q=gen%20alpha%20hoverboard&amp;t=1691161242639" target="_blank" rel="noopener">toys</a>, and as such, they've gotten pretty good at using them at a very young age. A <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@chadacarroll/video/6987200638643948805" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> of a two-year-old in diapers on a hoverboard spinning in circles like there's no tomorrow has drawn in 13.7 million views since it was posted to TikTok in July 2021, leaving a number of impressed adult commenters wondering how the child was able to be so proficient at hoverboarding before even being potty-trained. "If you can do that, then you can use the toilet," wrote one commenter. Other TikToks of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tylersreelfishing/video/7030556103767362821?q=growing%20up%20with%20hoverboards&amp;t=1691139412356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"hoverboard kids,"</a> as one user called them, showcase their ability to perform <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tylersreelfishing/video/7030556103767362821?q=growing%20up%20with%20hoverboards&amp;t=1691139412356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chores</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dizzybrandy/video/7157824372458261806?q=gen%20alpha%20hoverboard&amp;t=1691139312115" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carry objects</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tattedmama31/video/7184975697562291502?q=growing%20up%20with%20hoverboards&amp;t=1691139412356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and perform impressive tricks</a> on the scooters, often astounding onlooking adults in the process. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sarah_eliza2007/video/7145226280026361134?q=gen%20alpha%20hoverboard&amp;t=1691139312115" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One child</a> is even hoverboarding and using her iPad at the same time — the ultimate Gen Alpha. Generational discourse is an extremely popular topic on TikTok. Videos of people comparing and pitting generations against each other often go hugely viral. For example, discussions about how Gen Z identifies <a href="https://www.insider.com/gen-z-ruthlesly-mocking-millenial-humor-tiktok-2023-6">millennial humor</a> have been causing controversy and eliciting strong responses from users belonging to both generational groups on the app.Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.insider.com/skibidi-toilet-gen-z-alpha-memes-internet-culture-outdated-old-2023-7">Gen Alpha humor</a> has been causing confusion on TikTok, as some Gen Zers say they don't understand some of the humor popular among their younger peers, such as the "skibidi toilet" meme. <a href="https://www.insider.com/culture">For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.</a>

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Dear Santa: Please bring me a Skibidi Toilet for Christmas

Katie Notopoulos

Meta's new AI chatbots are already getting weird — and horny

Sydney Bradley

Generation Alpha is here and they're really, really good at hoverboarding

Charissa Cheong

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