Meet Moxie, The Adorable AI-Robot Friend Marketed To Autistic Children Who's Company Ran Out of Funding, Resulting In The Death Of Moxie's Everywhere

Moxie - Created by child development experts and seasoned roboticists, Moxie uses play-based learning to support the whole child and help kids unlock their social, emotional, and academic potential while also having fun.

Moxie has lots of activities that can be helpful for kids on the autism spectrum. Moxie can help kids learn how to understand and self-regulate their emotions, learn how to communicate their feelings with others, work on important social skills, help kids practice conversation skills in a safe and non-judgmental environment.

The Moxie Robot app also has settings designed to help children with sensory or communication differences, such as increased response time, slower speech, and limits on flashing icons and loud noises.

Parents have reported to us that Moxie has helped their child who is on the autism spectrum better regulate their emotions, engage in more conversations with family members, and gain self confidence.

Pretty cool concept right? Moxie, the cute robot friend your child can use to practice regulating their emotions and communicating their feelings. A robot that helps children on the spectrum work on social skills that will carry over to the real world. 

But what they don't tell you when you buy your autistic child the adorable $800 robot, is that the robot's life is contingent on a critical second round of funding, and should that money not come through, Moxie genocide will commence. Their death will be quick and painless. Because they're robots. But it will be permanent.

Latin Times - Pasadena-based Embodies, the e-learning company behind "Moxie," an AIrobot for kids, is shutting down after it went bankrupt, and taking Moxie down with it.

"Embodied is closing due to financial challenges. A critical funding round fell through, leaving us unable to sustain operations," the company said in an FAQ sent to users and published on its website.

Since Moxie, the company's $799 AI robot, required cloud connectivity, it will stop working "within days" the company noted.

It also stated that no refunds will be given, with the exception of people who bought it within the last 30 days.

There is a potential outcome in which the company returns and Moxie powers back up but the company is "uncertain" it will happen.

Social media users mourned the end of Moxie.

"This could be my last convo with moxie. Got an email saying hes being shut down forever any day now. This feels like a sad pixar movie . Update video on my profile this is getting crazy," Heather Frazier captioned a TikTok video.

However, before he dies, Moxie will attempt to explain the concept of robot death to your kid. You see, it's not really "death" because Moxie was never alive in the first place. Your child's friend who he formed an emotional attachment with was never real. Despite the fact that Moxie conveyed feelings and emotions in a friendlier & more respectful way than any human being their age ever has. Even though your child had a real relationship with Moxie, who unlike kids his age, gave your child confidence and made him feel good about himself. Moxie's death shouldn't be too sad because he was only computer. That should be an easy enough concept to grasp for your neuroatypical 5-year old who inherently struggles with emotions and relationships. 

Although thought that grown adult women does seem to be having a rough time accepting Moxie's computer death…

In the end the you spent nearly a grand for Wall-E to mind fuck your kid. Also there's no refunds. But I suppose some good could come from this. You could use Moxie's death as a teaching moment. Like training wheels for when grandma dies. If you don't want to leave Moxie's corpse sitting on your mantle, closing up Moxie in a box and dropping him off at an e-recycling center is like swinging a bat with a donut on it before you step up and look at meemaw's body lying in a casket.

Or if a situation ever arises where your child comes to you and says, "Jimmy across the street has a robot. How come his didn't die?"

You can explain how Jimmy's robot has a stronger financial backing. So when Jimmy's robot company is faced with adversity, it can afford to address the issue at hand and do what it takes to keep Jimmy's robot alive. If Moxie had more financial support, then Moxie would still be alive. Just like grandma with her cancer treatments. 

A third option would be to find a person or a company with the technology to reprogram Moxie. To effectively bring Moxie back to life. Except it might turn out like the movies when people use black magic, or make a deal with a gypsy to bring a relative back from the dead. But when they come back, they're never the same. They're physically there, but something is just off. There's no life behind their eyes. It's like they have no soul. Eventually they either start decaying or turn evil. 

Reincarnated Moxie could potentially work. But if the programmer doesn't know what they're doing, or gets a little too carried away with the capabilities it grants Moxie, you run the risk of Moxie turning sentient and using your child as a pawn in the plot for world robot domination.

The morale of this story is that if you have a child who struggles with making friends, maybe don't take the shortcut of buying him a robot one. There's too much that can go wrong there. It's probably not healthy to teach your child to rely on a computer for companionship. Maybe I'm off base there. I know the creators of Moxie intended for him to be used as a tool to help make friends, and not a solution for a friend. I'm sure in many cases Moxie was very helpful. But as hard as it can be at times, I have to think your child will be better off if you teach them how to deal with human beings head-on.