The future is made up of cute emojis

The public relations drive by the artificial intelligence sector continues, as it grapples with a series of scandals, ranging from hacker attacks organised by systems under development at OpenAI to the risk that, according to some, all this could lead to the extinction of humanity. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed renaming the entire technology, suggesting a switch from ‘AI’ to ‘SI’, or Super Intelligence. This week, he got down to business, signing an executive order in the presence of CEOs from the AI (pardon, SI) sector.

Also present at the event was Dario Amodei, head of Anthropic, a company with which the Trump administration has long had a complicated relationship: Trump, in fact, would like to continue developing AI without regard for limits or rules (all things his arch-enemy Joe Biden had tried to impose), whilst Amodei has long been at the forefront of advocating caution in this sector. Admittedly, this caution is relative, but it is nonetheless out of step in a world dominated by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, who, by contrast, have fewer qualms.

The question of appeal, however, remains open. To resolve it, following the rebranding attempt, companies in the sector seem determined to focus on aesthetics: within a matter of days, first Meta and then OpenAI unveiled two similar services – AI agents capable of carrying out actions on the user’s behalf – both of which feature adorable, furry mascots.

Meta kicked things off with Jolly, the mascot of Muse, the new agent-based service which, since its launch in September, has been the most downloaded app from the US App Store. Jolly looks as though he’s stepped straight out of a cartoon like Adventure Time or a children’s film: he’s a bit furry, resembling a yeti, with big eyes and a round, gentle face. In short, the ideal avatar for a Meta service that, in order to function, requires user information and access to their services (email, calendar, social media accounts, online banking). Requests that are better made by Jolly, or by another of Muse’s customisable avatars, than by Mark Zuckerberg’s real face.

A few days later, it was OpenAI’s turn, as it unveiled a service similar to Muse, called Dots: here too, the new feature was accompanied by colourful, animated mascots to which users can direct their questions. 

A coincidence? Not really. Firstly, because the trend towards agents has been underway for a couple of years now across the entire sector. But above all because these charming characters should be seen as the answer to the long-standing image problem mentioned above, meaning these companies need a friendlier face – one that is less intimidating and harder to say no to. In recent weeks, CEOs had tried to change their message by appearing more optimistic and avoiding talk of catastrophes and the end of the world: it seems this wasn’t enough, partly because the news has thwarted their plans, reminding everyone of the risks associated with this technology. And so they are trying the ‘cuteness’ route – a touch of ‘kawaii’, to use the Japanese term.

From this point of view, Jolly is somewhat reminiscent of Grogu – the character also known as Baby Yoda – the little puppet co-star of The Mandalorian, the Disney+ series set in the Star Wars universe. At the time of its release, his adorable appearance sparked debate: some saw it as a brilliant marketing move, whilst others criticised the ‘Disneyfication’ of the franchise. However, it certainly worked: the series found its audience thanks to original writing and stories on a ‘smaller’ scale compared to the grand epic of the original films, but it was undoubtedly helped by such an irresistible presence.

Well, it seems Jolly wants to do the same with Meta: instead of Baby Yoda, here comes Baby Zuck, a naive, cuddly little creature that’s no longer anything to be afraid of. This is ideal for Meta, which has long been engaged in an extremely costly transition from social media giant to AI hyperscaler. After years of investment, the results are finally coming through (Muse is proof of this), so much so that the company has also unveiled Charm, a device halfway between a toy and a smartwatch that allows you to carry AI with you at all times.