I, PLUSHIE

THEY'RE STUFFED ANIMALS. THEY'RE ALSO Al CHATBOTS

- STORY: AMANDA HESS / NYT

Curio is a company that describes itself as “a magical workshop where toys come to life.” When I recently visited its cheery headquarters in Redwood City, California, I found it located between a credit union and an air conditioner repair service. I stepped inside to meet the company’s founders, Misha Sallee and Sam Eaton. And also Grem, a fuzzy cube styled like an anime alien.

Curio makes chatbots wrapped in stuffed animals. Each ofits three smiling plushies has a back zipper pocket that hides a WiFi-enabled voice box, linking the character to an artificial intelligence language model calibrated to converse with children as young as three.

Eaton plunked Grem ona conference table and positioned it to face me. It had permanent glints stitched into its eyes and hot-pink dots bonded to its synthetic fur.

“Hey, Grem,” Eaton said. “What are the spots on your face?”

A bright mechanical trill originated from Grem.

“Oh, those are my special pink dots,” it said. “I get more as I grow older. They're like little badges of fun and adventure. Do you have something special that grows with you?”

I did. “I have dots that grow on me, and I get more as I get older, too,” I said.

“That's so cool,’ said Grem. “We're like dot buddies.”

I flushed with self-conscious surprise. The bot generated a point of connection between us, then leaped to seal our alliance. Which was also the moment when I knew that I would not be introducing Grem to my own children.

Grem, and its pals Grok (an applecheeked rocket ship not to be confused with the chatbot developed by xAI) and Gabbo (a cuddly video game controller), all of which sell for US$99 (3,220 baht), aren’t the only toys vying for a place in your child’s heart. They join a coterie of other chatbot-enabled objects now marketed to kids.