Grimes is moving into the toy enterprise with “Grok,” a personality that she voiced for Curio’s new line of screen-free AI plushies.
The toy isn’t affiliated with the AI chatbot backed by Grimes’ ex, Elon Musk, which is also named Grok. Musk described xAI’s Grok as having a “rebellious streak” and a willingness to reply “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” It’ll be vulgar if you happen to ask.
Grok, Gabbo and Grem, then again, are designed to encourage play. In a dialog with Curio founders Misha Sallee and Sam Eaton, posted on Curio’s blog, Grimes spoke encouraging creativity in kids early by way of dynamic conversations, slightly than a static listing of prompts.
“I just like the idea of bringing more imagination, or making it easy to access imagination in your kind of current existence as opposed to just observing it in other existences, like on screen or in a movie or book or something,” she mentioned.
In Curio’s announcement video, Grimes mentioned that she didn’t need her children “in front of screens,” however is “really busy.”
Picture Credit: Curio
Curio says that the toys can maintain full conversations so that children (or adults) can observe their communication abilities. There’s Grok, an anthropomorphized rocket ship voiced by Grimes. There’s Gabbo, who appears like a luxurious Gameboy with legs and arms. And there’s Grem, a cyan bunny with hearts on its cheeks. The beta model of the toys is available for pre-order till Sunday, and are priced at $99 every. They’re beneficial for teenagers aged 3 to 7 — Grimes’ oldest youngster with Musk, named X Æ A-Xii, is 3.
The plushies will reply questions on how rocket ships are made, play video games with the consumer and encourage children to develop listening and dialog abilities. Encased within the plush is a chargeable, Wi-Fi-connected speaker and mic, which is linked to an app for folks to arrange and monitor interactions with their children.
“When I think about kids, my goal is to preserve as many minds as possible from here, and how much can we replace iPads, basically?” Grimes mentioned within the dialog with Eaton and Sallee.
She later added, “I think the more you keep things verbal, too, the more you’re sort of forcing people to use their working memory. There’s all these little things that, you know, make our brains better just a little bit here and there.”
Grimes acquired concerned with Curio after responding to a post about the way forward for AI-integrated toys, wherein “children’s teddy bears will speak to them and make them feel safe at night.” Grimes replied that it might be “great if safe,” and that she’d love if her children may hang around with a “culture ship mind in a teddy bear.”
The road launched a few week after Musk’s ChatGPT competitor, additionally named Grok, started rolling out to X Premium Plus subscribers.
“Grimes is doing the voice for the toy, and this one is a rocket who is coincidentally named Grok and predated the Grok AI announcement, so there’s a funny overlap there,” Sallee mentioned within the dialog with Grimes.
As Business Insider reports, Grimes’ Grok was trademarked first.
Curio filed its trademark for Grok on September 12 this yr. xAI filed its trademark for Grok on October 23. Curio’s Grok is brief for Grocket, since Grimes’ children spend a lot time round rockets as a result of their father owns SpaceX, The Washington Post reports.
Grimes and Musk are currently engaged in a custody battle over their three kids, and have filed youngster custody lawsuits towards one another in California and Texas, respectively.
In a post addressing the title, Grimes mentioned that by the point Curio realized that xAI’s Grok staff was additionally utilizing the title, “it was too late for either AI to change names.”
“So there are two AI’s named Grok now, I can’t wait for them become friends,” she mentioned. “I can’t believe even ai can’t avoid showing up at school and meeting another kid with the same name haha.”
