‘Pseudo-Conscious’ AI Plushies Are Coming & They Are Developed And Voiced By Grimes
Who had this on their prediction list for 2024?
I know what you really want for your child: an AI-powered rocket-shaped stuffed animal for your child that is voiced by Grimes. Well, you are in so much luck! It’s coming soon, you can pre-order it now, and its name is Grok.
The new toy start-up Curio has announced that it’s in the beta phase of developing a line of AI plushies that will talk to and interact with your child. And their first three releases will all be voiced by Grimes, who helped to seed the company and develop the project.
Did they not see M3GAN?
And no, Grok, the rocket ship stuffy, is completely unrelated to Grok, Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot of the same name. Musk and Grimes share three children together, X AE A-XII, 3, Exa Dark Sideræl (known as Y), 2, and baby Techno Mechanicus (Tau).
Parents who are rushing to have an AI-powered friend for their child can pre-order Grok or the other two options, Grem and Gabbo, until December 17, for $99. They will be mailed “golden tickets” that you can put under the tree and the toys themselves will then follow in early 2024.
Interestingly, Curio is angling that these toys will keep kids more engaged with the world and become more creative — and stay away from their screens.
“I really feel like this is also the first step towards also sort of reducing screen time as much as humanly possible,” Grimes, who is testing the toy with her oldest, X, said in a Curio interview. “...I think when you take the screens out of it, the human mind it just tends to work so much better and people aren't stuck in a state of constant sort of dopamine hits that's disabled them in other aspects of their life.”
“Every [change] in technology unlocks new forms of entertainment,” said Sam Eaton, president of Curio, told WashPo. “It’s a different level of immersion for playtime.”
Allan Wong, CEO of toy company VTech predicted this summer that AI toys would be with us soon. But he guessed 2028, and it seems like it will be happening much more quickly than that.
And experts warn that we probably can’t stop AI from affecting the next generation of kids, and it will have both positive and negative impacts.
“ChatGPT and AI is coming down the tracks like a freight train. It's going to be a huge issue in our kids' lives,” Jim Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization focused on children and families, told CNN in May.
“If this is going to be a guest in the house, we want parents to have influence over what the toy believes,” Eaton said. “Maybe your family is vegetarian or religious and you want to influence [conversation around those topics]. Or maybe your kid has certain interests, like dinosaurs, and you want to put them in there.”
Over at Curio, the toy makers say that they hope that the toy will be “pseudo-conscious” — but that parents will have some control over what the toy talks about.
“If this is going to be a guest in the house, we want parents to have influence over what the toy believes,” Eaton said to The Washington Post. “Maybe your family is vegetarian or religious and you want to influence [conversation around those topics]. Or maybe your kid has certain interests, like dinosaurs, and you want to put them in there.”
Parents will also have full access to the transcripts of what the toy says to their kids.
“I really think it’s important to let parents know that they do have full control over it and we’re not hiding anything,” Eaton concluded.
Are you ready for an AI toy in your house? You can buy one below.
