Imagine being a child who struggles to communicate with others, weighed down by worries that make it difficult to socialize like everyone else. For anxious children who feel like misfits, life can be tough. But in 2020, Embodied Inc. launched Moxie – a cheerful, wide-eyed, blue-colored child-like robot – to help solve this very problem. Moxie’s goal was to provide a safe and non-judgmental space for kids, helping them overcome social anxiety and other issues that hinder their ability to lead a normal life.
Last week, however, the company announced its decision to shut down operations, meaning that Moxie robots will no longer be supported. This also means that parents will have a larger issue to deal with when their children lose their beloved Moxie.
The bond between Moxie and children was a special one. The AI robot toy interacted in a soothing child’s voice using LLMs and speech recognition software, creating a human-like and real-time conversation. One parent shared how Moxie transformed their seven-year-old son’s life, helping him greet others and interact with classmates. They described it as a life-changing experience, expressing gratitude towards a machine for the positive impact it had on their child.
Paolo Pirjanian, founder of Embodied Inc. and a former NASA JPL roboticist, explained the potential impact of early intervention and frequent interaction for children with autism. Unfortunately, Embodied Inc. was looking to expand globally and was exploring partnerships and strategies for launching in India. But with Moxie’s impending shutdown due to financial difficulties, the robot community and Moxie owners have expressed their regret after heartfelt videos of children bidding farewell to the robot surfaced on the internet.
Parents are now faced with the challenge of explaining the reason behind Moxie’s shutdown to their children, as concepts like investor failures and operational costs are difficult for a child to understand. Moxie’s failure stemmed from a key investor withdrawing funding at the last moment, disrupting essential financing needed to sustain its cloud-based AI services. Without these services, Moxie’s ability to learn and adapt was compromised, leaving its core functionality at risk.
Pirjanian addressed the future of Moxie in a statement titled ‘A devastating message to our community’, explaining the company’s decision to balance affordability, innovation, and accessibility. However, the choice to leverage cloud services to serve more families ultimately introduced vulnerabilities that have now led to Moxie’s shutdown.
Moxie’s fate sheds light on the issue of cloud-based AI toys and the potential risks they face. As we move towards a more technologically advanced world, it is important to consider the impact of such advancements on our children and their well-being.
