Grimes Introduces Innovative AI Plush Toy Line for Kids, including one named Grok
The musician Grimes, has recently introduced a captivating line of AI plush toys designed for children. Curio created the line of toys in partnership with OpenAI, as first reported by The Washington Post. Grimes has created an innovative series that allows these plush toys to engage in conversations and “learn” the personalities of their young owners. Grimes, who not only lends her voice to all three toys but also serves as an investor and advisor for the project
The three plush figurines are named Gabbo, Grem, and Grok not to be confused with the AI chatbot Grok owned by Elon Musk, Grimes’ former partner. Curio told the Post that the AI plush toy Grok and chatbot Grok are unrelated. The toy Grok is a shortening of the word “Grocket,” which Grimes said she coined due to the fact that herchildren with Musk grew up in the vicinity of SpaceX rockets. In a 2022 post on X, Grimes shared a charming anecdote about her two-year-old son with Elon Musk, could identify “obscure rocket design” and often accompanied his father to engineering meetings.
Each of the three characters, Grok, Grem, and Gabbo, boasts a distinctive personality crafted by Curio on the foundation of the OpenAI language model. Grok, the friendly rocket who loves to dance but can’t fly, Grem, the space alien captivated by the color pink, and Gabbo, a curious, Pinocchio-like figure always seeking new friends, offer a diverse range of experiences for young minds. The magic lies in the ability to build fun and lovable personalities into each character, creating an immersive and enjoyable playtime for children. wrote Curio co-founder Misha Sallee in an email to Istechnews.
According to Curio’s CEO, Sallee, the current toys have one mode, “sweet, friendly, jokester personality that is child-appropriate.” However, the company is actively working on a beta functionality that allows parents set more preferences.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s database, Curio filed an application to trademark the name Grok on September 12th, 2023. Despite facing a pending status, this application predates Elon Musk’s company, xAI, which sought a trademark for the Grok chatbot on October 27th, 2023.
The dynamic collaboration between musician Grimes and Curio was sparked by an interesting post on an online platform, referred to as X. In April, a user named Roon shared a vision of a future where “every last thing”, even children’s teddy bears, would be “animated with intelligence.” Grimes felt compelled to reply to the post.
“This would be great if safe. Parenting is so hard, I’d love if my kids were hanging out w smthn equivalent to a culture ship mind in a teddy bear haha that’s prob too much to ask.” wrote the musician.
In a conversation between Roon, Grimes, and Sallee posted on the toy company’s blog, the trio talk about the potential of AI toys to influence human behavior — as well as reduce their reliance on screens.
Grimes remarks, “I really feel like this is also the first step towards also sort of reducing screen time as much as humanly possible. […] 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…and I feel like we’re sort of like a decade into everyone having screens be a really major part of every single day and many, many hours of their day,”
Currently, these AI toys require a Wi-Fi connection to operate. However, the founders aspire to encapsulate all hardware and software within the toys themselves. Each toy comes with an accompanying app, providing parents with a written transcript of their child’s conversations with the toy. Importantly, the company assures that no voice data will be stored, and transcript storage adheres to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, with deletion after 90 days.
These AI toys are now available for pre-order on the Curio website, priced at $99 each.
Before you go!
- If you found this article valuable, kindly offer a round of applause 👏. As a writer, your support holds great significance.
- Don’t forget to click the Follow button for more enlightening content and ensure you Subscribe to our newsletter. Subscribing guarantees that you’ll receive fresh articles directly in your inbox, ensuring you never miss out on valuable reads.
- Please feel free to drop a comment 💬 to share your thoughts, and don’t hesitate to share 📢 this article with your network to help spread knowledge. Your engagement fuels our motivation to bring you more high-quality content.”
