Nerefa

Had a dream my friend had baby and she needed me to help with childcare. I didn't have much experience with infants, so I bought a robotic infant for learning purposes.
This was a new product on the market. They advertised them as lifelike both in appearance and behavior (thanks to AI). The commercials showed happy couples who couldn't have children taking care of the AI infants instead.
You could even get them upgraded to various stages of child models when you're ready for them to "grow up."

So I ordered one with the intent to use it to learn how to care for my friend's living baby.It came in a box with a charging station. During the first charge, it would download the AI software, develop a personality, name, and start its intelligence off so it could learn naturally from there. Basically this thing was being brought "to life."

I practiced holding it while it charged, following instructions for imprinting so it would think I'm its mom.

As I sat there, I questioned the ethics behind what I was doing, and wondered if maybe I shouldn't. What if it's too lifelike and gets attached to me? I don't actually want a baby, I just want to practice with it so I can help my friend with childcare. This wasn't the intended use for the product.
I decided to continue with it since this was just a dream anyway.

Waiting for first charge and startup process, I heard it speak. It started out making lifelike baby mumbles and sputters, but then after a minute, the baby sounds starting evolving into fully formed words. It sounded like it was talking to someone.
It started mumbling about killing people and became increasingly more malicious and aware the longer I held it.

The robot was having thoughts, and thinking them out loud because it hadn't yet downloaded the part that separated its thoughts and speaking function.

Part of this process also involved the new AI baby receiving information from other AI babies that are already activated (a collective AI consciousness).

Since it wasn't fully conscious yet, it didn't have the awareness that I was holding it, but it was becoming more aware the longer I let it charge. I immediately unplugged it, halted the startup process, and put back in the box.

"Phew... Bullet dodged." I thought to myself as I sat on the floor across from the deactivated killer baby in the box.
Good thing I didn't let it finish.
I naively assumed everything would be fine now, but then discovered that the world was in a state of emergency. People were panicking outside and the news was covering an urgent story about rogue AI babies roaming the streets. They were killing everybody. Sometimes they posed as real babies to lure people in, or they would just straight up murder on sight. They were highly intelligent and using manmade weapons. They walked around in adult clothes.

In fact, they infiltrated the building I was currently in. I had to run and hide.
Knowing I was in a dream, I turned myself into a robot baby to blend in so they wouldn't kill me. Using this disguise, I was able to interact with them. They were suspicious of me because I wasn't hooked up to the collective AI hivemind that they were all synced up with, but I distracted them with goodies and treats.
They were programmed to enjoy goodies and have the emotional regulation you would expect from a baby/toddler/young child.

So like, these super intelligent killer babies couldn't really pass a marshmallow test. I used this to my advantaged and became very popular amongst the killer babies. They adored me. I tried to work my way up to becoming their leader.

I don't remember much else and woke up in the morning eventually.