<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/18/startups-implosion-will-render-800-emotional-support-robots-for-children-into-useless-bricks/>
"In our stories about how you don’t actually own what you’ve bought in the
digital and IoT world, one of the sub-genres of those stories concern products
bought by customers that become entirely or partially useless due to the
decisions made by the seller. This itself can take a variety of forms, from
video games that no longer function after backend servers are decommissioned to
hardware that bricks once support from the selling company goes away. We live
in an insane world where I can buy a widget as advertised today, only to find
that it no longer works as advertised tomorrow due to no fault of my own. To
claim that this is anti-consumer is an understatement on a level hitherto
unrealized.
And it just keeps happening. Embodied is the name of a startup company that
produced “emotional support robots” for children. Now, I’m going to leave to
the side my own natural revulsion to the very concept of this product. I can
feel the weight of my own 42 years pressing down on my brain and fueling my
desire to shout to all who will listen, “What the hell is the matter with you
people!?!?” Maybe these robots were useful in helping children and maybe they
weren’t. I certainly am not qualified to say either way.
But I damned sure know they aren’t going to be useful any longer, as Embodied
has announced that it is closing up shop, shutting down support for the robots
it sold, which means these emotional support robots will no longer emotionally
support anyone at all, be they children or otherwise. This is a result of the
company losing a critical fundraiser in its latest funding round and its
inability to secure any other source of needed funding."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
