John Cerio, a child physchologist at Alfred University claims robot pets will "interfere with a child's creativity" because they lack interactivity and feedback needed for open-ended play. There's no explanation of why he believes robots like the Aibo lack interaction and feedback or how he came to his conclusions. Sherry Turkle, an MIT scientist who appears somewhat more familiar with robotics, has come to a different conclusion: that humans interact with these robots exactly as they would with biological pets. Turkle's thoughts on the subject are available in a recent NPR story on robots.