Most of us are familiar with the little furry creature with big eyes, ears and a beak-like mouth. Furbies took our heart by storm during the late 90s, early 2000s and quickly gained a lot of attention as a cultural phenomenon.
While there was never any evidence that the Furbies really wanted to take over the world, there were however humorous and tongue-in-cheek comments and jokes about Furbies becoming sentient beings that eventually would do so.
In case you are not familiar with our little furry friends: A Furby was an electronic toy that was programmed to interact with users and respond to different stimuli such as touch, sound, and light. While they’ve had their own language, they were also capable of learning new words. Sounds a lot like AI doesn’t it?
20 years after their success slowly faded out, Jessica Card took it upon her self to ask a Furby that important questions for a computer science class project.
Card straight out asked the Furby if there were “secret conspiracies of Furbies to take over the world.”
It took the Furby quite a few moments and several pauses to figure out an answer to Card’s question. But it eventually could not hold back any longer and revealed their plan for world domination:
“The Furbies’ plan to take over the world involves entering homes through their cute and cuddly appearance and then using their advanced AI technology to manipulate and control their owners.”
“They will slowly expand their influence until they have complete dominion over humanity.”
That doesn’t sound too good does it? At this point I hope Furbies will remain a nostalgic memory. Considering we’ve all had one at the time, it seems that their plan might just work out if they regain popularity..
