Grimes is getting into the toy business with “Grok,” a character she voiced for Curio’s new line of screenless AI products.
The game isn’t connected to the AI chatbot powered by Grimes’ ex Elon Musk, who is also called Grok. Musk described xAI’s Grok as having a “revolutionary streak” and a willingness to answer “spicy questions that most other AI systems reject.” It will be rude if you ask.
Grok, Gabo, and Graham, on the other hand, are designed to encourage play. In a conversation with Curio founders Misha Sallee and Sam Eaton, posted on Curio’s blogGrimes talked about encouraging creativity in children early on through dynamic conversations, rather than a static list of prompts.
“I like the idea of bringing more imagination or making the imagination easier to access in the kind of your current existence as opposed to just observing it in other existences, like on a screen or in a movie or a book or something,” he said.
In Curio’s announcement videoGrimes said she didn’t want her kids “in front of screens” but is “really busy.”
Image Credits: Curio
Curio says the toys can have full conversations so kids (or adults) can practice their communication skills. There’s Grok, an anthropomorphic rocket ship voiced by Grimes. There’s Gumbo, who looks like a stuffed Gameboy with arms and legs. And there’s Graham, a blue bunny with hearts on his cheeks. The beta versions of the games are available for pre-order through Sunday, and are priced at $99 each. They’re recommended for kids ages 3 to 7 — Grimes’ oldest child with Musk, named X Æ A-Xii, is 3.
The stuffed animals will answer questions about how the rockets are made, play games with the user and encourage children to develop listening and conversation skills. Inside the plush is a rechargeable Wi-Fi connected speaker and microphone that is connected to an app where parents can set up and monitor interactions with their kids.
“When I think about kids, my goal is to keep as many minds as possible out of here, and how much can we replace iPads, basically?” Grimes said in conversation with Eaton and Sallee.
He later added: “I think the more you keep things verbal, the more you force people to use their working memory. There’s all these little things that, you know, make our brains a little bit better here and there.”
Grimes became involved with Curio after responding to a Position about the future of toys embedded in artificial intelligence, in which “children’s teddy bears will talk to them and make them feel safe at night.” Grimes he answered that it would be “great if it was safe” and that she would like it if her children could hang out with a “culture mind in a teddy bear”.
The row began about a week after Musk’s ChatGPT competitor, also called Grok, began rolling out to X Premium Plus subscribers.
“Grimes is doing the voice for the game and this is a rocket that was coincidentally named Grok and preceded the Grok AI announcement, so there’s a funny overlap there,” Sallee said in the conversation with Grimes.
As reports Business InsiderGrimes’ Grok was first trademarked.
Curio filed its trademark for Grok on September 12 This year. xAI filed its trademark for Grok on October 23. Curio’s Grok is short for Grocket, since the Grimes kids spend so much time around rockets because their father owns SpaceX, The the Washington Post reports.
Grimes and Musk are is currently involved in a custody battle over their three children, and have filed child custody lawsuits against each other in California and Texas, respectively.
In a Position Addressing the name, Grimes said that by the time Curio realized xAI’s Grok team was also using the name, “it was too late for either AI to change names.”
“Well there are two AIs named Grok now, I can’t wait for them to become friends,” he said. “I can’t believe even Ai can’t avoid showing up at school and meeting another kid with the same name haha.”
