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Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

walmart.com

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Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#141

Post by Sean-Der »

prawn wrote: post #88
zephyreon wrote: post #56

My 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!”

I had an app idea that was effectively this Walmart product but Santa was always in a blizzard and/or hard of hearing, and continuously misconstrued requests. "What?! You want to order bark?" Idea being that kids love nonsense, but also the scenario pointed towards kids not expecting anything to be a real request.

lol I love that.

My kids would find it so funny hearing Santa doubling down on bringing the wrong toy.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#142

Post by tommit »

billy99k wrote: post #135
48terry wrote: post #122

[flagged]

So he should just eat the cost that will add up over time, which is an unsustainable business model? Plenty of people buy subscription-based services, so I think 'everyone hates' means you actually hate it. It's a great product that you can just ignore and not buy and the subscription model is told to you up-front, so there are no surprises. I think it's a great use of 2025 technology.

> So he should just eat the cost that will add up over time, which is an unsustainable business model?

No, I think he should just not have built this product. However, this is my personal feeling and it seems there is some kind of market for it, so what do I know.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#143

Post by Sean-Der »

gyomu wrote: post #133
Sean-Der wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is roleplay with this object different then other toys? If you get lost in a D&D game is that bad because the world isn't real? Getting lost in Myst and making Doom WADs was a joy I have always been trying to recapture. I am constantly looking for a way to do that for others. What do you think of my take here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45575175 ? These 'LLM Role play' toys have hit a real fun spot with…

> How is roleplay with this object different than other toys? Traditional role play is driven by the child and their imagination, and is essentially free of constraints. This is driven by the technology, follows a narrow script, and only allows for a single mode of engagement. Not saying that makes it good or bad, but they're clearly 2 different modes of play. > If you get lost in a D&D game is that bad because the w…

My experience with D&D was on the computer. I didn’t have friends that would play with me. I didn’t feel constrained by having computer driving the story. Games like Baldurs Gate pulled away from unhappy things happening otherwise.

id software had a profit motive right? As a kid it didn’t occur to me. I just nagged my parents to pay for Doom/Heretic.

I also have done everything to encourage/empower DIY. My hope is that users that are curious can learn more/build it themselves.

> Normally once a toy is bought, infinite time can be spent with it with no further financial transaction

I can’t think of any case where that is true. Books/toys all get worn and may need to be replaced. I have bought my son the same toy forklift three times because it breaks and he really loves it.

> Is it desirable to build a world where kids spend more time with this category of toy over others

I would rather see my kids play with this technology than consumption only (videos). Other play is better then doing Santa role play, but this isn’t close to be worse at all.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#144

Post by Sean-Der »

rs186 wrote: post #129
Sean-Der wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer isn't no. You can open up the phone and modify the ESP32. I do that pretty often with IoT devices. It's not as easy as setting a URL, but totally possible if you are determined enough.

Why don't you just answer that in the parent comment? Isn't that a simpler, clearer and better answer? Or you mean "in theory yes, but actually no"? Maybe this thing has an ifixit score of 0 so that you'd better not bother? > I would buy a dev board + build it yourself, you will get a much better experience then trying to reuse the existing thing. Sounds like it. Dude you can be honest here. Which is almost saying no…

This wasn’t built to be a general purpose phone. It’s a single purpose tool, if it had full SIP support it would need more expensive hardware. When I worked on this I knew I wasn’t building some interoperable general tool.

I am being honest with you. For me the ‘hacker spirit’ means cracking things open and learning how they work. So I totally encourage others to do it.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#145

Post by Sean-Der »

pants2 wrote: post #103

ChatGPT had Santa mode last year where you could talk to Santa using Advanced Voice. I thought it was pretty cool because as adults we're used to turn-based conversation, speaking clearly, and waiting for a response. That did not happen when I tried it with my nieces and nephews. Lots of screaming, incoherent AND I I I REALLY I WANT, yelling over Santa as he was responding, etc. It was a complete flop. Anyway I would…

It definitely takes coaching to use it. My daughter will interrupt and waits for Santa to repeat himself (and it doesn’t)

As technology gets better I’m excited for turn based voice ai to go away :)

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#146

Post by KyleTheDev »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #104
Sean-Der wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. * San…

> Seeing kids role-play with LLMs and especially when they hallucinate is a lot of fun. I think this is kinda fucked up

Yea, this seems so incredibly wrong to me. How somebody can write that, and not reel from comprehending the implications of what they're doing to their child, is so far beyond me.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#147

Post by patapong »

Sean-Der wrote: post #50
patapong wrote: post #35

This is such a fun use of AI! Congratulations. If you buy the walmart version, can you connect it to your own pion server?

I would buy a dev board + build it yourself, you will get a much better experience then trying to reuse the existing thing. I have written implementations target at specific boards. So go and buy one of these and boom stick it in anything you want. I have done this for my kids and have a bunch of different characters. My favorite is my daughter has a toy that pretends to be 'the ocean' it is so funny and existential.…

Thank you for your response! Appreciate making it open source.

I think there would be a market for a pre-built phone that can be adapted to behave differently - think e.g. as a phone in art installation or escape rooms.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#149

Post by Sean-Der »

patapong wrote: post #147
Sean-Der wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would buy a dev board + build it yourself, you will get a much better experience then trying to reuse the existing thing. I have written implementations target at specific boards. So go and buy one of these and boom stick it in anything you want. I have done this for my kids and have a bunch of different characters. My favorite is my daughter has a toy that pretends to be 'the ocean' it is so funny and existential.…

Thank you for your response! Appreciate making it open source. I think there would be a market for a pre-built phone that can be adapted to behave differently - think e.g. as a phone in art installation or escape rooms.

I would love to do that.

What I really wanted to build was a 'tour guide'. I could walk up to a piece of art in the museum and get more info on it. It would also be multilingual. At my local museum all the art descriptions are English only.

Might be too disruptive for a museum though. I want to discourage screen use/let people continue to use their eyes when learning.

Re: Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

#150

Post by Sean-Der »

fathermarz wrote: post #140

This post is eliciting different feelings for me. 1. Congratulations on getting a product into a major chain’s distribution network. That is a feat and is something to be proud of. 2. Do I think this product should exist? No. There are services that do this already, the only thing different is making it standalone. I fear it’s just another toy that will sit on the shelf and eventually contribute to the e-waste proble…

1.) Not something I did. I only worked on the software.

4.) Contracted because I wrote the Open Source libraries it uses. I created https://github.com/pion/webrtc and https://webrtcforthecurious.com the company reached out to me because https://github.com/sepfy/libpeer didn't work with Pion. Turned out to be a libpeer bug (which I fixed)

> were you really hooked

I have been doing hardware + WebRTC with lots of different projects since then. https://www.youtube.com/@seandubois86 unpaid, that's my proof at least :)

> Hooked on the technology stack.

Yes I enjoy doing WebRTC + C https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-webr... (one of original authors) so I enjoy the tech a lot.

> Hooked talking to Santa

I enjoy the unexpected behaviors of Voice AI at this moment in time. In the video I asked Santa about pi, and it responded in a way I didn't expect. I find it absurd/entertaining.

> Do you have kids that you built it for

Yes. I have a few toys/personalities that I built for my kid. They make up funny scenarios/personalities and I change the prompt and put it in a different toy. It's fun.

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