It’s Grem, an AI-powered stuffed alien toy that the musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, helped develop with toy company Curio. Designed for kids aged three and over and built with OpenAI’s technology, the toy is supposed to “learn” your child’s personality and have fun, educational conversations with them. It’s advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is part of a growing market of AI-powered toys.

Burn it with fire.

Had anybody tried to give it water after midnight?

That said, Djordjevic notes, “chatbots can be useful tools for looking things up, structuring homework, or factchecking. So I wouldn’t say use needs to be prohibited entirely. But ideally, parents monitor it, set clear parameters for when it’s used, and set limits on time spent, just as with social media.”

Yikes, chatbots are terrible for fact-checking.

"You can see how Curio’s website could be mistaken for satire. The “girl” in the promotional video is Grimes, who has prominent “alien scar” tattoos and is inexplicably kneeling next to a knife. And it’s certainly an interesting decision to name one of your stuffed toys Grok, when that’s the name of Elon Musk’s chatbot. Grimes, who has three children with Musk, has said the name is a shortening of the word “grocket” – a kiddy pronunciation of rocket – and has no relation to Musk’s AI product. But it seems likely people might confuse them. Misha Sallee, the chief executive of Curio, didn’t reply to my requests for comment."

Yeah, grocket lol, good one, sure, lol,

In two sentences, they just implied a mountain, a full fucking iceberg of controversy and rumors about their very much continued relationship, apparently.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “It’s just because it’s new. The novelty will wear off. And if it doesn’t, we’ll get rid of it.”

I feel like this belongs in a horror movie

Edit: Jumping Christ

“I’m afraid I’m locking you in a cupboard,” I inform it after it asks if I’m ready for some fun. “Oh no,” it says. “That sounds dark and lonely. But I’ll be here when you open it, ready for snuggles and hugs.”

Also, spoiler for the article: The kid quickly got bored and moved on from the toy because the toy kind of sucks. She is ahead of some tech CEOs I could name.

"It’s advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is part of a growing market of AI-powered toys."

An overly affirmative AI toy that sometimes fabricates facts?

Furbies 2.0

Who looks at this and doesn't immediately say "Oh wow, there are so many problems with this"?!

Black Mirror IRL.

I wonder if that's illegal where I live (Germany). Toys with internet connected microphones have been confiscated before. Though that depends on if they have some sort of recording feature.