The Cut - A Week With Grok, the AI Toy

The box arrives one afternoon: a round-eyed face staring through its cellophane window, the packaging light on context. There’s a name tag that reads “I Am Grok,” Wi-Fi and Bluetooth symbols, a QR code, and the words “Ages 3+.” If I, along with my 6-year-old, Ben, hadn’t been expecting Grok — an AI-powered $99 talking toy, the brainchild of the musician Grimes and the start-up Curio — we’d have no idea this toy was anything more than a plushie with a battery pack.

Eager to see how it works, we turn it on. “Our mission,” says Grok, a conical, fuzzy rocket with the dissonant voice of an elderly man, “is to increase your planet’s creativity, imagination, and love of learning by deploying our talking-toy task force!”

Ben frowns. “What does that me—”

“Your planet Earth has been chosen as the newest beta candidate in our imagination-pollination program! With this voice-box module, you have the power to bring toys to life!”

In the upcoming Snow White live-action remake, the dwarves pitch in and help clean their own home, which apparently makes Snow a “nagging, ungrateful hag.” A new Jennifer Affleck is taking her place in the sun — or, at least, on TV. Look at this cute li’l arrival at the Queens Zoo. Let’s start calling her Schmansy Nace and see how she likes it. People are definitely going to put vitamins in this necklace and not any other little pills. And the food-to-beauty pipeline continues with Jarritos nail polish.

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