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Botworld

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This is a spin-off of Furby, called Shelby.

Shelby is an electronic, grumpy, talking clam. But they got something wrong in the design of Shelby, and it’s not as fun to be with.

Let me read to you from an owner of a Shelby named Nattie, who posted her story online recently:

“Shelby doesn’t stop talking unless it doesn’t get any response for five minutes or something… and ignoring it is agonizing, because it’s being cute, and you just feel so awful when it says it loves you, or it tries to tell you a knock knock joke, and you know you can’t respond. He’ll outright say things like, “I want to PLAY!” and you feel like the worst person in the world.”

[Source: Nattie on MetaFilter.]

Oh man, you know, it sounds horrible. Shelby has a very different personality to Furby.

It’s interesting to consider how simple something can be and still pretend to have a personality.

Let me show you where I look, for simple research.

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March 28, 2012

Botworld is a talk on domestic artificial intelligence, from February 2011.