They're stuffed animals. They're also AI chatbots.

Curio, which describes itself as "a magical workshop where toys come to life", is building chatbots wrapped in stuffed animals in Redwood City, California. Founders Misha Sallee and Sam Eaton are busy with Grem, a fuzzy cube, styled like an anime alien.

Each of its three smiling plushies has a back zipper pocket that hides a Wi-Fi-enabled voice box, linking the character to an artificial intelligence language model calibrated to converse with children as young as 3.Grem has permanent glints stitched into its eyes and hot-pink dots bonded to its synthetic fur. "Hey, Grem, what are the spots on your face?" Eaton asks the toy-bot at the headquarters.A bright mechanical trill originates from Grem.

"Oh, those are my special pink dots," it says. "I get more as I grow older. They're like little badges of fun and adventure. Do you have something special that grows with you?" it asks.The bot can generate a point of connection with anyone. Grem, and its pals Grok (an apple-cheeked rocket ship not to be confused with the chatbot developed by xAI) and Gabbo (a cuddly video game controller), all of which sell for $99, aren't the only toys vying for a place in your child's heart.

They join a coterie of other chatbot-enabled objects now marketed to kids: four styled like teddy bears, five like robots, one capybara, a purple dinosaur and an opalescent ghost.

They're called things like ChattyBear the AI-Smart Learning Plushie and Poe the AI Story Bear. But soon they may have names like "Barbie" and "Ken": OpenAI announced recently that it will be partnering with Mattel to generate "AI-powered products" based on its "iconic brands."Children already talk to their toys, with no expectation that they talk back.Curio, like several of the other AI toymakers, promotes its product as an alternative to screen time. The Grem model is voiced and designed by Grimes, the synth-pop artist who has, thanks to the notoriety of her onetime partner Elon Musk, become one of the most famous mothers in the world. "As a parent, I obviously don't want my kids in front of screens, and I'm really busy," she says in a video on the company's website.

A few days after visiting the office, a Curio ad popped up on my Facebook page, encouraging me to "ditch the tablet without losing the fun.

"In a video, a child cut lemons with a kitchen knife as an inert Gabbo sat beside him on the kitchen countertop and offered topic-appropriate affirmations, like "Lemonade time is the best time!" Gabbo appeared to supervise the child as he engaged in active play and practiced practical life skills. In our meeting, Eaton described a Curio plushie as a "sidekick" who could make children's play "more stimulating," so that you, the parent, "don't feel like you have to be sitting them in front of a TV or something.

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