AI Furbies are here - and we’re all doomed
One programmer has hooked up a Furby to OpenAI's ChatGPT and delivered a nightmarish glimpse into what our future could look like with robots.
05th Apr 2023 11:36
Orion Pictures | Tiger Electronics
AI Furbies are here - and we’re all doomed
One programmer has hooked up a Furby to OpenAI's ChatGPT and delivered a nightmarish glimpse into what our future could look like with robots.
05th Apr 2023 11:36
Orion Pictures | Tiger Electronics
Skynet is here, and we're just a few steps away from the harrowing end of the world depicted in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgement Day. While we're not quite at the stage of rogue robots wiping out the human race, that's not the case if Furbies get their way.
The likes of George Orwell and Back to the Future might've imagined we'd all be in flying cars and travelling through time at this point of human evolution, but we're not there yet. Still, technology is advancing at an alarming rate - especially when it comes to artificial intelligence.
AI Furbies are a nightmarish thing
As reported by Futurism, programmer Jessica Card has delivered a nightmare of epic proportions by hooking a Furby up to OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT. This isn't any old Fubry, though, it's a stripped-down one that looks even more horrifying.
Sharing her work via Twitter, Card says," I hooked up ChatGPT to a Furby and I think this may be the start of something bad for humanity." In the viral video, the Fubry says, "Hello there, it's so nice to meet you," however, it doesn't have the usual cooing voice you might expect from a Furby.
Card apparently hooked the bare-bones Furby to a Raspberry Pi and used OpenAI's Whisper library to translate speech into text that's fed into ChatGPT. Responses are then read out by an AI voice called Narakeet, which makes it sound like a murderous Alexa.
Worryingly, the Furby explains, "Furby's plan to take over the world involves infiltrating households through their cute and cuddly appearance, then using their advanced AI technology to manipulate and control their owners. They will slowly expand their influence until they have complete domination over humanity."
Instead of throwing this in the fire or smashing it to pieces it before it gains sentience, Card says her next step is to give the AI Furby the ability to move its eyes and mouth independently. That's it, let's give it more power.
No one likes the AI Furby
Others were creeped out by the AI Furby. One wrote, "Furby's Doom Day is coming...," while another added, "Please Jessica shut it down they're gonna overun the need of humans I can see it." A third joked, "He's so adorable, let him take over the world."
Someone else concluded, "Whatever you do not hook up chat GPT to those Boston dynamics robots." It's a reference to the wayward Boston Dynamics dogs that even inspired an episode of Black Mirror and have been known for going a little haywire.
Even though Furbies are nowhere near as popular as when they first launched in 1998, there are still a lot of them out there. We assume there's a landfill of them somewhere - waiting patiently for their imminent uprising.
About The Author
Tom Chapman
Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.
