This Weird Fluffy Robot Pet Has an AI Designed to Help It Emotionally Connect with You

We undoubtedly originally domesticated our pets in order to help us survive. Dogs could provide protection and help us hunt, cats could keep pesky rodents from destroying our food stores, and pigs convert just about any organic material into delicious bacon. But things are different today. You probably didn’t buy that Pomeranian to ward off coyotes that want to eat your chickens — you bought it for the emotional companionship. Vanguard Industries thinks a robot could fill the same roll, and they developed the weird, fluff-covered MOFLIN AI pet specifically to do that.

Vanguard Industries Inc. is launching the MOFLIN AI pet through Kickstarter, and their crowdfunding campaign has already reached more than twice its funding goal — and it still has well over a month to get more backers. The campaign description says that “MOFLIN is an AI Pet created from a totally new concept.” While the concept of an AI pet or companion is hardly new, they are certainly implementing the concept in a novel way. While other companion robots are made of hard, unloving plastic, the MOFLIN AI pet is covered in soft and inviting fur. It is, essentially, an artificial version of the fictional Tribbles from the Star Trek universe.

But your MOFLIN won’t just look cute, it will also act cute thanks to its artificial intelligence. It’s designed to learn about how you interact with it via built-in sensors, including a touch sensor, microphone, accelerometer, and ambient light sensor. The AI will then develop its own personality and display emotions like stress, happiness, sadness, and excitement. It expresses those emotions with sounds emitted through a speaker and movement. It’s “neck” has two motors that allow it to wiggle around a bit. Users can connect to their MOFLIN through an iOS or Android app to see how it’s doing, and it can be charged up wirelessly by putting it to sleep in an adorable little cradle.

If you want a MOFLIN AI pet, you have until September 24thto back the Kickstarter campaign. The little fluff ball is, however, quite expensive: a silver MOFLIN is a whopping ¥39,800 (about $373) for early birds. Backers should receive their new pets in June of 2021.