$800 kids robot due for bricking sees “potential” open source second life
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Well...they're trying. Sucks, but it's far superior to most other companies. They'll just close down and leave you hanging with nothing.
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I mean, this isn't a terrible option to go with.
I mean, if a company is going out of business, it's going out of business. Services are simply going to end. Really, I think one of the best possible routes is to do something like open-sourcing it.
Yea...those crazy kids and their....teddy bears. Kids practice socializing by anthropomorphizing things and naturally form emotional attachments to them. To a kid, an interactive robot that reacts to them is just as "alive" as a dog and can provide the same kind of emotional and social security.
Look at how kids will often retreat to their teddy bear or favorite blanket (or insist on bringing them along) when they're introduced to new social situations. Is it really that much different that this one has some electronics and motors inside it?
I mean, if a company is going out of business, it's going out of business. Services are simply going to end. Really, I think one of the best possible routes is to do something like open-sourcing it.
Yea...those crazy kids and their....teddy bears. Kids practice socializing by anthropomorphizing things and naturally form emotional attachments to them. To a kid, an interactive robot that reacts to them is just as "alive" as a dog and can provide the same kind of emotional and social security.
Look at how kids will often retreat to their teddy bear or favorite blanket (or insist on bringing them along) when they're introduced to new social situations. Is it really that much different that this one has some electronics and motors inside it?
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News of next week: RealDoll wants to buy any working Moxies to be integrated into a new line, the Foxy Roxy model.
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deltaproximus
Ars Scholae Palatinae
For every parent that easily affords one of these, there's likely another that feels they have to act like they can afford one of these, and goes into debt to keep up appearances.
Speaking from experience, I didn't learn I wasn't rich until my parents had our house foreclosed on when I was in senior year of high school. Had all the newest toys, video game systems, etc, growing up. I could see my mom buying this for a 5 year old me.
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An alternate thought is that, especially for kids on the autistic spectrum, it can be useful for helping to train social cues. Definitely doesn't replace any of the other therapies, but could be a useful tool for helping to show/demonstrate emotions and responses, that aren't as easily noticed/seen/processed/understood by the neuro-spicy young kids.Let’s be honest , any parent paying $800 for an emotional support robot probably has the money to substitute other options, possibly even , you know , more parenting themselves, or helping their child relate to other living things .
Yes this may seem glib , but AS a parent , I see far too many kids get not enough face time with one or both parents .. and a robotic substitute for friends and living thing centered relationships is not necessarily a good thing.
My kid ? She has a loyal puppy .
Could be, not saying this one is, but has the potential for, yes.
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Again, why is it different than a teddy bear, favorite blanket, Rosebud, or even a Teddy Ruxpin? Things that have been acceptable for children to anthropomorphize for centuries.
I bet I know; it's because it uses 'emotional' or 'support' in its description, and that's too 'woke'
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Yet, we don't think twice about giving emotional support dogs flea baths. Emotional investiture is subjective. People regularly invest heavily in thing that aren't even real, much less alive.
To borrow a quote:
"YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY."
Plenty of people invest emotionally in things like mercy and justice, it's not restricted to things with DNA.
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"they can’t perform their core features without the cloud"
Anyone else lose their "owned" content with the Funimation - Crunchyroll merger?
If you do not have a physical copy that can be run without connecting to the internet, you do NOT own it. This robot? Just another symptom of overreliance on the internet, and things that depend on companies that could go out of business, or merge and drop any agreement you think you have with them.
Anyone else lose their "owned" content with the Funimation - Crunchyroll merger?
If you do not have a physical copy that can be run without connecting to the internet, you do NOT own it. This robot? Just another symptom of overreliance on the internet, and things that depend on companies that could go out of business, or merge and drop any agreement you think you have with them.
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If everything gets open sourced... Realdoll won't even need to buy anything. Customize the software and e we might have the next big leap in adult dolls.
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We'll see what it looks like when the thing is actually available to inspect. I wouldn't assume the flexibility will be as promised based on the word of a company that would like to move its last inventory still.
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I understood from the comments in the last news article that they were using one of the big LLM‘s for language processing, And filtering the responses on their own cloud network to make sure they were appropriate. Are they removing whatever guard rails they had put up to do this?
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I agree, until we see the github or wherever it's posted, but just announcing that they're going to is a great start. Though yes, we need it released to actually fully applaud them.
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I really feel pity for the kid who is emotionally attached to the robot that is now probably going to be bricked. Especially if it was obtained as way to help the kid with some neuropsychological disorders. If it was marketed for such use, then this robot should have been regulated as a medical device.
Otherwise, this robot reminds me a lot of Izhiguro's excellent book Klara and the Sun.
Otherwise, this robot reminds me a lot of Izhiguro's excellent book Klara and the Sun.
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One can only hope the delay is due to logistics and not last-ditch negotiations to sell the company to someone who doesn't want it out in the open. Taking it at face value, this seems to be an genuine effort to make the best of a bad while wholly-predictable situation.
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The main catches appear to be (a) their hosting service will cut them off for non-payment soon, and (b) the people setting it up for open source are probably doing it for free so the company can't guarantee they'll finish it.
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Keith Tanner
Ars Tribunus Militum
It may also depend on what’s in that code. There might be parts of it from other sources that cannot be open sourced.
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Yeah, it's probably down to "we have our devs who really want to get this done and are willing to do it to help our customers, but still need to clear licenses/proprietary code/libraries to make sure that we can actually open-source it".
I made an app once that wasn't a big hit. It did have some fans that I wanted to still support when we decided to shut it down, but it wasn't possible to 100% open-source it since it depended on some commercially paid-for libraries and resources.
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Not at all my area, but surely it can't be very expensive just to keep an update server up and serving the updates and nothing else for a few years. Basically 0 load.
It seems very creepy that they're running this on the cloud in the first place. I know a lot of companies do this, but uploading all interactions with your "emotional support robot" from folks who need it to the cloud just seems a bad idea (Not to mention the usual issues with this catching a lot of audio not addressed to the robot).
It seems very creepy that they're running this on the cloud in the first place. I know a lot of companies do this, but uploading all interactions with your "emotional support robot" from folks who need it to the cloud just seems a bad idea (Not to mention the usual issues with this catching a lot of audio not addressed to the robot).
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I really want there to be a code and certificate escrow that occurs. Once the company becomes defunct or they declare the asset value to be zero on the books it starts a timer so it is released.
If we have the MS DOS source years later there's no real reason these things can't have their documents, code etc stored and released as well.
I understand there's a fine line here to walk to maintain security of existing or related products - I would love to be able to have source for old discontinued BIOS or similar though.
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That did happen with Insteon. They shut their servers down and crippled a lot of functionality. But then, one of the founders jumped back in and said, "If everyone would be willing to pay $40 a year for server expenses, we might be able to bring the company back." A lot of people said yes, the company restarted, and now my Insteon cloud is back on the air and smoothly automating my home.
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Hell, I'm 40 and still have a stuffed alligator snapping turtle. Mostly because Bob is awesomeMy son still kept his teddyinto his teens. Never could figure why. I don't remember even having one when I was a kid.
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I have a stuffed toy cat I got back in the 90s as an adult. I'm highly allergic to cats, but love them dearly. I don't play with it or anything, but it's basically my substitute for a real cat, since I can't have a real one. It's been sitting on the dresser where I can see it for decades now.
My old teddy bear's probably in this house somewhere, but I have no clue where.
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I would worry more if you still had an actual cat you got back in the 90s.
With respect to childhood toys, all mine wound up at my sister's when I moved across the country forty years ago, but I know she still has many of them and her kids grew up loving them, too.
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I'm really surprised that the company didn't take this path. Up the subscription cost by X% to what is necessary to keep the doors open and the users will gladly pay it to avoid their kid's best friend from dying.
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basically what my stuffed alligator snapping turtle is for me.
They're absolutely awesome animals but their size and longevity make them a really godawful choice of pet, and I'm very unlikely to see a wild one so...
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