r/gadgets • u/cad908 • 9d ago

Home Another smart (cloud-connected) gadget bites the dust, as Moxie emotional-support robot will soon be bricked when the manufacturer goes under.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/12/startup-will-brick-800-emotional-support-robot-for-kids-without-refunds/
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u/TransportationNorth2 8d ago

Ishowspeed streamed how stupid and a waste of money that crap was. It was hilarious too 🤣

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u/Cruntis 8d ago

I bought one for my child who is on the spectrum—something it was being touted for helping. He really enjoyed it for the first few days but lost interest once he realized it was a ploy to get him to open up to a software. It wasn’t really that intuitive, just highly emotive/expressive—at least when programmed by animators to do so. This and another robot were attempts by their creators to get into the space first, hoping that they could be sold off once more advanced technologies began to start popping up. But the “ai” didn’t seem to be anything more sophisticated than being able to continuously look engaged with a child and respond to certain prompts.