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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." ...

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... I flushed with self-conscious surprise. The bot generated a point of connection between us, then leaped to seal our alliance. Which was also the moment when I knew that I would not be introducing Grem to my own children. ...

What might the ramifications of possibly having an open microphone in one's house, sending everything said to some server somewhere?

imo, this may not end well ...