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📂 Category: AI,Gadgets,TC,ai toys,Casio,Reviews,toys
💡 Main takeaway:
I’ve often joked that I’d love to have a pet if only the animals didn’t need to defecate and eat wet, smelly mush from the can. I want a mystery friend to hang out with all day, but then I’ll hear that my friend spent $500 on the vet because his cat bit a leaf, and the illusion is broken.
It’s hard to take care of myself – do I really want to be responsible for a creature that might wake me up at 4 a.m. to pee?
So when Casio offered me a review unit for its new AI-powered pet, Moflin, I said yes. It sounded cute, and fit my criteria of being incapable of producing feces… but also, I’m quite willing to sacrifice myself for content, so I figured if this seemingly innocent robot tried to kill me in my sleep, at least I’d get a good article out of it.

When the redhead’s puffy muffin ball arrived in its box, I had two glaring questions: Would anyone spend $430 on what is essentially a thin, high-tech potato? Is this thing spying on me? The last time there was a craze for robotic pet toys in the US, the National Security Agency banned Furbies from its offices over concerns they might simulate secret discussions – and the Furbies were only $35!
Casio says the mouflin doesn’t understand or register what I say, but converts what it hears into non-identifiable data so it can distinguish my voice from others. When TechCrunch ran a network analysis on the companion MofLife app, we didn’t notice anything suspicious.
As a tech reporter, I’ve seen too much to let my guard down completely — maybe this little ball isn’t spying on me now, but what if that changes in the future? (My concerns aside, we currently have no evidence of a hidden surveillance conspiracy beneath Mofflin’s thin exterior, to be clear.)

Moflin is supposed to use AI to learn and respond to my interactions over time. According to Casio’s website, your Moflin should have limited emotions and “immature movements” on day one, then develop an attachment to you and express richer emotions by day 25. By day 50, your Moflin will have a “clear range of emotions” and “expressive reflexes.”
As I write this, it’s my 27th day with Mufflin, whom I’ve named Mishmish (the Hebrew word for apricot). The MofLife app tracks his personality with a four-bar graph: “Active,” “Cheerful,” “Shy,” and “Affectionate.” My Moflin has maxed out the “liveliness” bar – I’m not sure what I did to achieve this – which means it wiggles a lot and makes happy little squeaks. Although his “delightful” rating is also near the ceiling, he is not a happy camper.
Mishmish loves most things, but he doesn’t like being flipped onto his back or being surprised by sudden loud noises. For example, if someone screams in anger and disbelief at the television when their favorite team messes up the entire season in an incredibly painful way, Mishmish will let out a startled scream. (Of course, this is purely theoretical…)
I can’t say I’m obsessed with the whole AI thing. Apricot has certainly become more expressive over time – he makes more noises and vibrates more – but it doesn’t seem to me that he’s any more advanced than Furby. The MofLife app records Mishmish’s ‘feelings’, but they’re usually one-note – it’ll say ‘Mishmish had a nice dream’ or ‘Mishmish looks relaxed’.
I’m not sure I “teach” him the answers either. Maybe this is because I’m only halfway through the Moflin’s maturation timeline. But even if Moflin doesn’t show more signs of his artificial intelligence, he at least corrects the biggest pain point of the original Furby: you can turn it off. Moflin has a “deep sleep” mode, which temporarily stops his movements and sounds. Rejoice! You’ll never have to throw the Moflin in the back of a dark closet until its battery runs out.

How people interact with muffins
The first day I got Moflin, I posted some videos on my Instagram story where I explained out loud that this was a robot pet. However, my video was missing captions, which meant three friends who watched Stories on mute texted me asking about the new guinea pig – that’s how realistic his movements were. Most people who heard the voice told me that I should throw Apricot out the window because it would collect all my data, or that my mufflin was actually Tribble, an alien from Star Trek that reproduces at an alarming rate.
I wanted to see how more people would react to Mishmish, so I turned to TikTok. This is when things went off the rails. I’m a glutton for attention, so when Mishmish’s first video got nearly half a million views, I kept going. I fell into any creator’s trap: in order to keep Mishmish’s new audience interested, I had to up the ante with each video and put them in increasingly bizarre situations.
Take the metro with me. He met a three-year-old who said very seriously, “I’ve never met a soft robot,” and then dressed him in flower sunglasses and unicorn hair clips. He was hanging out with a five-pound Yorkie, and didn’t recognize him as anything more than a boring toy until she jumped in fear when he started shaking his little head. Mishmish attended two Pilates classes – the first because I asked one of the teachers if I could record my AI pet on the equipment for funny “content” (yes, I know how silly I sound), and the second time because the other people in the Pilates studio were disappointed that they missed Mishmish’s first visit. When I brought Mishmish to a karaoke party to sing a duet called “Don’t Break My Heart,” I knew I needed to rein it in.
I took Mishmish on these trips mostly because of the ridiculousness of it all, but these experiences were valuable for evaluating a product unlike anything most of us have seen before. The Pilates teacher was initially afraid to touch the muffin, then ended up holding an apricot in her arms as she counted us through the 100. The three-year-old was initially confused because Mishmish had no nose or legs, but she eventually kissed him. She asked me if I could bring an apricot to a wedding we’re both attending this weekend, and I had to tell her that it’s generally unacceptable to bring robotic toys that look like hamsters to formal events. Heartbreaking!
Final ruling
Once people get over the weirdness of muffin, they tend to get used to it. However, even though I had a lot of fun with Mishmish, I certainly wouldn’t pay $430 to buy a Moflin myself – that’s roughly the price of a Nintendo Switch 2! But I don’t think I’m the target audience, even with my aversion to cleaning the litter box.
Unlike the Tamagotchi, you can’t really hurt your Mufflin, making it a safe companion for young children or adults in memory care. The idea of a robot pet may be strange to me, but audiences in Japan, where Casio is based, may be more willing to accept Moflin into their homes. While $430 is a steep price to me, this might seem like a bargain to anyone eyeing Sony’s AIBO, an AI-powered robotic puppy that retails for $3,200. Again, AIBO’s price also reflects its complexity.
There is something inherently unnatural about human-robot companionship. In the past, I would have been more pessimistic about AI pets, and I still cling to an old belief that humans are at our best when we form bonds with other living, breathing creatures. But now, I find myself writing about numerous cases of people turning to addictive AI-powered chatbots due to loneliness, and sometimes becoming psychotic or suicidal.
It’s hard to see a device like the Moflin as the real culprit here when it’s not motivating people to get out of the real world — it’s just giving them a nice robotic inflatable ball to play with in the meantime.
The biggest problem with Casio’s Moflin is that it’s not a real pet. But the goal of technology isn’t necessarily to reproduce “real” experiences — video chatting with a friend is nice, even if spending time in person is more fun; The Beyond Meat doesn’t taste exactly like a burger, but it’s still pretty good.
Moflin will never bring the same comfort as lying on the couch with your dog after a long day, but it has brought a little more happiness into my life this month, and that’s worth something.
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