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Meta And OpenAI Roll Out Cute Mascots For Their AI Agents
Images courtesy of OpenAI and Meta // Illustration by Kate Walker
Meta, OpenAI, and, to a lesser extent, Anthropic are all leaning on cuddly mascots to sell their consumer-facing AI agents.
Why It Hits: Plenty has been said about the possible catastrophic outcomes of the race to create the most powerful AI systems. To combat those narratives, AI companies are turning to one of the most tried-and-tested marketing plays in the book — mascots aesthetically designed to make you go “awww.”
Behind The Code: It’s hard to think about AI-driven doom when looking at a cute cartoon character.
Meta debuted a smiling, egg-shaped mascot named Jolly, with rosy cheeks and a slight smile, for its new Muse system.
OpenAI then rolled out a cast of different-colored mascots named Iggy, Felipe, Jojo, Todd, and Alfred for its Dots agents. Users can customize their looks and names.
Anthropic has been ahead of the curve with a pixelated orange crab named Clawd. Technically, it was created by one of the company’s developers, but it proved so popular that the company adopted it.
Final Generation: Both Meta and OpenAI have said that Muse and the various Dots will respectively start to appear in their companies’ wider marketing campaigns (Clawd has yet to appear in any of Anthropic’s consumer-facing marketing). That’s a big bet on these cuddly creatures to sell AI to the masses, considering the top AI companies have collectively spent $936 million on marketing in the US over the past three years… with over half of that spent just this year.
That makes sense, considering what veteran branding consultant Allen Adamson told WSJ: “It’s easier to trust something friendly.”
The Future: Prepare for each of these characters to become the heroes of an AI-driven choose-your-own-adventure game in the near future — a playground for testing the emerging capabilities of their systems.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.