already gone. anywhere else to get it? how hard is it to reprogram?
I would DIY it, I think you will have a lot more fun/enjoy the end result more https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45575106
If you do I would love to help!
Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
51–60 of 183 posts
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#52How much computing power would one need to get this working completely local running a half decent llm fine tuned to sound like santa with all tts, stt and the pipecat inbetween?
I started looking into this with a Pi 5. It seemed like it was not quite performant enough. But I'm not an expert with these things and maybe someone else could make it work. We definitely have the technology to pull this off in this form factor. It would just be really expensive (maybe $500) and might also get a little hot.
If I was building it to be 'local only' I would run the inference on a remote host in my house.
Having a microcontroller in the phone is nice because it is WAY less likely to break. I love being able to flash a simple firmware/change things would fighting it too much.
Oh! Also I do all the 'WebRTC/AI dev' in the browser. When I get it working how I like, then do I switch over to doing the microcontroller stuff.
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#53If running out of 60 mins turns the device into a brick, that’s an F-. If it can be restored with a flat purchase, that’s a B. If it first degrades gracefully into a toy with a bunch of pre-loaded audio clips, that’s a big ol’ A+ from me.
Inference is always getting cheaper, so my hope is that restrictions like this can go away in the future.
I totally understand giving it a 'B'. But I promise you that I came at this project with sincere hope that I can build something that brought more joy then it cost into this world.
I have it at home and I think it's worth the money. My 5 year old uses it and the recordings I got from it I will keep forever.
* Santa tried to end the conversation and she said 'no no no wait, one more present'
* It thought she wanted a llama instead of something else and she hysterically laughed. As she gets older I don't hear that as much, and it made me so happy.
I call bullshit on things all the time, so I get the cynicism. But give it a shot! Seeing kids role-play with LLMs and especially when they hallucinate is a lot of fun. Honestly as the software gets better I think it might not be as fun. It almost feels like the joy of using Linux during the editing your Xorg config days. The chaos is what you fall in love with?
dunno
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#54I can’t help feeling this technology will end up more widely deployed for a related but less wholesome application.
It's already happening! I went to https://vapi.ai/vapicon and the stuff that people are already building is bonkers.
It would be naive to think that this technology would only be used for good. I have been working on Pion WebRTC for years though and have see lots of stuff getting built that didn't feel great. Not sure what I can do though.
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#55This is an amazing product. I don't have kids yet but I would buy this for them if I did! However, since this is Hacker News, I must say I'd probably enjoy building this myself using TTS and LLM APIs...
Build it :)
It's the most fun I have had in a long time. Building a character and having it sit on your desk and chatter/say things you don't expect.
I love absurdism humor. This hits the spot for me.
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#56My biggest concern with a toy like this is that my future kid might ask for a water park in our backyard and then Santa would respond with an enthusiastic “That’s a great idea Kyle! I’ll consult with the elves to see how I can make it happen!”
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#57I can’t help feeling this technology will end up more widely deployed for a related but less wholesome application.
I swear to god, people need to stop trying to go for 100% completion in turning every Black Mirror episode into reality.
I think it's more of a speed run really. I'm waiting for Santa to start suggesting that the kid could have more presents if it weren't for those pesky siblings type of nonsense
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#58How do you ensure 'safety' for kids talking to an LLM?
With 60 minutes of talk time included, I kind of get the impression this isn't designed so that you can hand it to your kid and let them spend the day talking to Santa. I'm assuming the idea is that they do this in lieu of writing to Santa, and you would supervise the experience. Also, if your eight year old is trying to jailbreak Santa, you might have bigger issues to worry about.
I mean, if my kid were trying to jailbreak Santa at least half of me would be proud.
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#59Congrats and good work.
Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores
#60What happens when you use up the 60 minutes of talk time?
You drink another verification can.