Moxie Owners Fold Again, Giving Users Until June 30 to Migrate Data
Updated
Updated · MIT Technology Review · Aug 17
Moxie Owners Fold Again, Giving Users Until June 30 to Migrate Data
1 articles · Updated · MIT Technology Review · Aug 17
Summary
A few weeks after reviving Moxie in 2025, the robot’s new owners said they were shutting down and told users to delete their data or move to OpenMoxie by the end of June.
The collapse again leaves families with a companion robot whose core functions depend on company support, reviving fears that children—especially neurodivergent users—could abruptly lose an emotionally significant device.
Moxie had already gone dark once in 2024 when Embodied ceased operations; former technical director Justin Beghtol then built the open-source OpenMoxie workaround, though some parents struggled to install it.
The 15-inch robot was sold as a social-emotional aid for children, but its demise underscores broader doubts about AI therapy bots’ clinical value, privacy risks and planned obsolescence.
Could the sudden death of cloud-dependent therapeutic robots cause more psychological harm to neurodivergent children than the benefits they initially provided?
When an AI companion becomes a child's best friend, who is responsible for the emotional fallout when the company suddenly pulls the plug?