Embodied shuts down, leaving Moxie child companion robots to go dark

Embodied, which made the Moxie social robot for children aged roughly five to ten, told customers it was closing because a crucial funding round fell through. Moxie relied entirely on cloud-based AI for its conversations, so the robots were expected to stop working within days. The company said it could not offer refunds on the device, which retailed for around $799. The closure became a defining cautionary tale about cloud dependence, product lifespans and the emotional bonds children form with companion robots.

Source: Popular Science