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156 points Sean-Der | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0.332s | source | bottom

Alt link: https://mrchristmas.com/products/santas-magical-telephone

Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7QJxZWFQg

The first time I talked with AI santa and it responded with a joke I was HOOKED. The fun/nonsense doesn't click until you try it yourself. What's even more exciting is you can build it yourself:

libpeer: https://github.com/sepfy/libpeer

pion: https://github.com/pion/webrtc

Then go do all your fun logic in your Pion server. Connect to any Voice AI provider, or roll your own via Open Source. Anything is possible.

If you have questions or hit any roadblocks I would love to help you. I have lots of hardware snippets on my GitHub: https://github.com/sean-der.

1. SlackingOff123 ◴[] No.45576701[source]
Moral implications of LLM aside, this is an always-online, subscription-based toy that will eventually turn into a brick (unless the parent is an HN-er). I find it really sad that this kind of toy is sold in stores.
replies(5): >>45579802 #>>45582260 #>>45583768 #>>45587422 #>>45588246 #
2. Sean-Der ◴[] No.45579802[source]
My hope is that the toy gets people interested/exposure to the idea.

Then the curious will open up the device/try to DIY. Lots of voice ai providers and microcontroller media code is open source!

3. tomalbrc ◴[] No.45582260[source]
It’s only 1 API change away in order to become a brick. Would not be surprised if it’s unusable before Christmas this year.
4. butlike ◴[] No.45583768[source]
I don't get why they charge you a subscription if the GPT-enabled (presumably) LLM will just ask you follow up questions indefinitely?
5. flippy_flops ◴[] No.45587422[source]
Why?
replies(1): >>45587655 #
6. bigyabai ◴[] No.45587655[source]
This is up there with "Easy-Bake Oven" among plastic doodads that will be used for ~40 minutes and then added to a pile of plastic garbage many adults keep in their basement.

I don't oppose to the open backend of the device (it should be table-stakes for this kinda thing), but the concept seems really zero-sum and disposable. It relies on a form-factor that most kids don't use and depends on the novelty of AI which will wear off pretty fast. As much as I hate to say it, this should have been an app or a website.

7. lovich ◴[] No.45588246[source]
And with Klarna payments!

This entire page makes me uneasy