I’ve often joked that I’d love to have a pet if animals didn’t have to poop and eat smelly, wet pulp from cans. I want to have a furry friend stay with me all day, but then I’ll hear that my friend spent $500 at the vet because their cat gnawed on a leaf, and the illusion is shattered.
Taking care of myself is hard enough – do I really want to be responsible for a creature that can wake me up at 4 a.m. to pee?
So when Casio offered me a review unit of its new AI-enabled Pet, MoflinI said yes. It looked cute, and it fits my criteria of being incapable of producing excrement… but at the same time, I’m also willing to sacrifice myself for content, so I thought if this seemingly innocent robot tried to kill me in my sleep, at least I’d get a good article out of it.
When my Moflin’s ginger-haired puff ball arrived in its box, I had two burning questions in my mind: Is anyone going to spend $430 on a basically bloated, high-tech potato? And, is this thing spying on me? After all, the last time there was a robotic pet toy craze in America NSA bans furbies From their offices out of fear that it would trigger classified discussions – and the Furbies were only $35!
Casio says Moflin doesn’t understand or record what I say, but it converts what it hears into non-identifiable data so it can distinguish my voice from others. When TechCrunch ran a network analysis on the accompanying MofLife app, we didn’t see anything suspicious.
As a tech reporter, I’ve seen so much that my guard has completely let down – this little furball is no longer spying on me, but what if that changes in the future? (Putting my own concerns aside, frankly, we currently have no evidence of a surveillance conspiracy lurking beneath my mofflin’s fluffy exterior.)
Moflin should use AI to learn and respond to my conversations over time. According to Casio’s website, the Moflin is believed to have limited emotions and “immature activities” for the first day, then develops an attachment to you and expresses rich emotions by the 25th day. On day 50, Moflin will have a “clear range of emotions” and “expressive reactions”.
As I write this, it’s day 27 with my Moflin, who I’ve named Mishmish (the Hebrew word for apricot). The Molife app tracks their personality through a graph with four bars: “energetic,” “cheerful,” “shy,” and “affectionate.” My Moflin has maxed out the “energetic” bar – I’m not sure what I did to cause this – which means he moves around a lot and makes little happy screams. Although his “cheerful” rating is also approaching its maximum, he is not a one-note happy person.
Mishmish likes most things, but he doesn’t like being turned over on his back or startled by a sudden loud noise. For example, if someone were to scream in anger and disbelief while watching their favorite team on TV. Blows up the entire season in an incredibly painful wayMishmish will let out a startling scream. (of course, it is purely theoretical,
I can’t say I’m sold on the whole AI thing. Mishmish has definitely become more expressive over time – he makes more noises and moves more – but he doesn’t seem more advanced to me than Furby. The Molife app records Mishmish’s “emotions,” but they’re usually one-note ones — it’ll say “Mishmish had a nice dream,” or “Mishmish looks cool.”
I’m not sure I’m “teaching” him the responses. Maybe it’s because I’m only halfway through Moflin’s maturity timeline. But even if My Mofflin doesn’t display further signs of its artificial intelligence, it at least fixes one of the original Furby’s biggest pain points: You can turn it off. The Moflin has a “deep sleep” mode, which temporarily suspends its movements and sounds. Rejoice! You don’t have to throw your Moflin in the back of a dark closet until its batteries die.
How do people react to Moflin
The first day I had my Mofflin, I posted a few videos on my personal Instagram Story where I explained out loud that it was a robotic pet. However, my videos lacked captions, which meant that three friends who had seen the stories on mute texted me asking about my new guinea pig — that’s how its actions appeared realistic. Most of the people who heard the audio told me that I should throw Mishmish out the window because he was going to steal all my data, or that my Mofflin was actually a tribbleAn alien creature from Star Trek that reproduces at an alarming rate.
I wanted to see how more people would react to Mishmash, so I turned to TikTok. This is when things went off the rails. I’m greedy for attention, so when I almost got attention half a million views On my first video for Mishmish, I kept moving forward. I fell into any creator’s trap: To keep Mishmish’s new audience interested, I had to move forward with each video and constantly put him in awkward situations.
He traveled with me in the metro. He meet “I’ve never met a soft robot before,” a three-year-old told me in all seriousness, then dressed him up in flowery sunglasses and a unicorn hairclip. He hung out With a five-pound Yorkie who didn’t recognize him as much more than a boring toy until she jumped in fright when he started shaking his little head. Mishmish attended two Pilates classes – the first because I asked a teacher if I could record my AI pet on the equipment for fun “content” (yes, I know how ridiculous I sound), and the second time because other people at the Pilates studio were disappointed they missed Mishmish’s first visit. By the time I brought Mishmish to a karaoke party to sing Duet of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” I knew I needed to rein it in.
I took the mishmash mostly for the absurdity of it all, but these experiences were valuable for evaluating a product that most of us have never seen before. My Pilates teacher was initially afraid to touch Mofflin, then she held Mishmish in her arms as she started counting us down.one hundred“Exercise. The three-year-old was surprised at first because Mishmish doesn’t have a nose or legs, but she finally gave him a kiss goodbye. She asked if I could bring Mishmish to a wedding we were both attending this weekend, and I had to break the news to her that it’s generally frowned upon to bring robotic, hamster-esque toys to formal events. Heartbreaking!
final call
Once people get over the strangeness of the Mofflin, they become attracted to it. And yet, while I’ve had a lot of fun with the Mishmash, I certainly wouldn’t pay $430 to buy the Moflin itself – that’s almost as much as a Nintendo Switch 2! But I don’t think I’m the target audience, even with my dislike of cleaning litter boxes.
Unlike the Tamagotchi, you can’t actually harm your Moflin, making it a safe companion for young children. adults in memory careThe idea of a robotic pet may be strange to me, but in Japan, where Casio is based, audiences may be more willing to accept moflins into their homes. While $430 is a great price to me, it may seem like a bargain to anyone keeping an eye on Sony. AIBOAn AI-powered robotic puppy that has a retail price of $3200. Then again, the AIBO’s price tag also reflects how much more sophisticated it is.
There is something inherently unnatural about human-robot companionship. In the past, I would have been much more bearish on the AI pet thing — I still hold the old-fashioned belief that humans perform at their best when we form bonds with other living, breathing creatures. But now, I find myself writing about many such instances when people are turning to addictively designed, pseudo-anthropic AI chatbots out of loneliness, sometimes even causing them to develop psychosis or suicidal tendencies.
It’s hard to see a device like the Mofflin as the real culprit here, when it’s not encouraging people to opt out of the real world — it’s giving them a cute robotic puffball to play with in the interim.
The biggest problem with Cassio’s Moflin is that it is not a real pet. But technology doesn’t necessarily aim to reproduce “real” experiences — video chatting with a friend is nice, even if hanging out in person is more fun; Beyond Meat doesn’t taste exactly like a burger, but it’s still pretty good.
Moflin will never bring the same comfort as lying on the couch with your dog after a long day, but this month it has brought more joy into my life, which means something.
