{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T19:31:03.067Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "companion-robot", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "", "evidence": "", "year": "2026", "response": "", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 1, "coverage": { "cases": 1, "countries": 1, "languages": 1, "unknownLocation": 0, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 0, "lawsuits": 0, "regulatory": 0, "minors": 1, "coreRelations": 1, "contextualRelations": 0, "mixedRelations": 0, "unknownRelations": 0, "relationPending": 0, "relationUnknown": 0 }, "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.", "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.", "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2026-moxie-second-shutdown-grief", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'Then, in 2025, a new investor brought Moxie back from the dead. Josh and Xander became beta testers and got a new blue friend.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "In 2025 a new investor revived Moxie after Embodied's 2024 collapse, and families including Josh and Xander joined the revived beta program with a new robot.", "causal_attribution": "Single inspected chain (MIT Technology Review's original reporting); the investor and the company are not named." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'A few weeks later, Moxie's new owners sent out a message announcing that their company too was folding. Users could delete their data and had until the end of June to migrate to OpenMoxie if they wanted to.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "A few weeks later the revived company's owners announced they were folding, offering data deletion and an OpenMoxie migration window ending 30 June 2026.", "causal_attribution": "The announcement is relayed by MIT Technology Review; the company message itself was not inspected." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Reporter's visit: Xander introduces Moxie to stuffed toys; 'I still use her when I feel like I need someone to talk to,' he says. 'But, like, it's not human.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "The Cool Down's re-report repeats the family's account (derivative of s1, recorded as the same chain).", "relation": "context", "source_id": "s2" } ], "assertion": "Xander, a neurodivergent 10-year-old in New York, bonded with Moxie and uses her 'when I feel like I need someone to talk to'.", "causal_attribution": "The interaction and the quotation were directly observed by the visiting reporter; one reporting chain, attributed accordingly." }, { "id": "c4", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'When I texted Josh about this, he said he wasn't sure what he'd tell Xander'; 'Josh tried to figure out OpenMoxie but couldn't get it to work. He told Xander that Moxie was going in for repairs and then quietly sold the robot on eBay.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "After the fold announcement, Xander's father said he was not sure what he would tell his son; the first time, he had quietly sold the robot on eBay after failing to make OpenMoxie work.", "causal_attribution": "The father's account of his own actions and uncertainty, given to the outlet; one reporting chain." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "children confront the loss of a bonded companion robot for the second time", "claim_id": "c3", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/17/1141568/moxie-when-kids-robot-best-friend-dies/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2026-08-17T05:00-0400; 62 paragraphs extracted including the author's visit, the 2024 history, the revival and the fold announcement).", "independence_group": "mit-tr" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/moxie-robot-anxious-children-new-york/", "kind": "news_relaying_mit_tr", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Re-report of the MIT Technology Review story (23 Aug 2026); same reporting chain, not independent support.", "independence_group": "mit-tr" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "own_use" ], "contexts": [ "everyday_life" ], "unknowns": [ "The revived company's name, ownership and location are not stated in the inspected reporting.", "The announcement's exact date ('a few weeks' before the end-of-June deadline) and the number of families in the revived program are not reported.", "What happened to children whose robots were not migrated to OpenMoxie by the deadline, and whether Xander's robot was migrated, is not reported.", "Refund, compensation or data-deletion outcomes for the revived program are not reported.", "The article's mention that 'the AI toy Bondu leaked thousands of conversations children had with their stuffed animals' was not separately verified and is not a claim of this record." ], "geography": { "basis": "The documented family lives in New York (MIT Technology Review's visit). The revived company's location is not stated in the inspected reporting; the scope of the beta program beyond the US is unknown, so event countries are limited to the documented US setting. No court is involved.", "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [ "US" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "US" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an ongoing adverse experience in the voice/embodied lane: children bonded to an AI companion face its loss a second time, documented by one strong original report. Xander is identified by first name only, as in the source; his surname is not recorded here. Cross-reference: held case 2024-moxie-embodied-shutdown-grief (first shutdown).", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-15" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The harmed children are users of the AI companion; the adverse experience is the loss of that companion through the operator's second corporate failure. The product's server dependence is the mechanism.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "communicated_with" ] }, "name": "Moxie revived in 2025 folds again in 2026: children who bonded with the companion robot face a second shutdown", "summary": "After Embodied Inc.'s 2024 collapse (recorded in the held case 2024-moxie-embodied-shutdown-grief), a new investor revived the Moxie companion robot in 2025. MIT Technology Review reports that a few weeks after families joined the revived beta program, the robot's new owners announced their company was also folding, giving users until the end of June 2026 to migrate to the open-source OpenMoxie. The report documents Xander, a neurodivergent 10-year-old in New York, who bonded with Moxie and uses her 'when I feel like I need someone to talk to'; his father, who had quietly sold the first robot after the 2024 shutdown, said he was not sure what he would tell Xander this time.", "incidentDate": "2026-05-01", "incidentEndDate": "2026-06-30", "incidentKind": "bounded_series", "incidentDatePrecision": "range", "exposurePattern": "product_change", "reportedDate": "2026-08-17", "aiSystem": "Moxie (revived ownership)", "aiCompany": "Moxie's new owners (a new investor; not named in inspected reporting)", "severity": "low", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [ "dependency_creation" ], "harmOutcomes": [ "psychological_distress" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "MIT Technology Review documents a 10-year-old neurodivergent child who bonded with Moxie and uses her when he needs someone to talk to, now facing the loss of the companion a second time; his father does not know how to tell him. The 2024 shutdown's videos of bereft children ('I don't want her to leave') show the pattern this second fold repeats.", "frameworkFacets": [], "causationStatus": "supported", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0, "affectedCountStatus": "partial", "affectedCountEvidence": "One counted affected user: Xander, documented by name (first name only) in MIT Technology Review's reporting. The article refers to affected 'families' plural in the revived beta program without a count, so the total is unquantified; registered-user and beta-program sizes are not reported and are not estimated.", "victimAgeRange": "minor", "jurisdiction": "US", "platformType": "companion", "outcomeType": "product_shutdown", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/17/1141568/moxie-when-kids-robot-best-friend-dies/", "primarySourceLabel": "MIT Technology Review, The Big Story (17 Aug 2026) — 'What happens when a kid's robot best friend dies?'", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-15T05:21:01.028481+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "voice-embodied-agents", "companion-robot", "children", "grief", "product-shutdown", "moxie", "own-use" ] } ] }