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... 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.

Eaton plunked Grem on a conference table and positioned it to face me. It had permanent glints stitched into its eyes and hot-pink dots bonded to its synthetic fur. "Hey, Grem," Eaton said. "What are the spots on your face?"

A bright mechanical trill originated from Grem. "Oh, those are my special pink dots," it said. "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?"

I did. "I have dots that grow on me, and I get more as I get older, too," I said.

"That's so cool," said Grem. "We're like dot buddies." ...