This AI Santa Claus is Here to Save this COVID Christmas - Meet SantaTime

This AI Santa Claus is Here to Save this COVID Christmas

What could come next to cap off this most unusual year?

An AI Santa Claus?

That's right. The team at the AI Foundation have put out a rather interesting use case of their technology to allow kids and families a way to talk to Santa, without having to deal with COVID for an in person session with the big man.

Per the limited information on their website, they state that:

Scrap the letter to Santa this year and video chat with the big man instead! He can play games, read you a bedtime story, listen to what you want for Christmas and so much more! 100% of SantaTime profits will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

With apps on both Google Play and Apple, I was able to make the $1 purchase / donation and give it a whirl.

Since I have no children and this is a kids app, I decided to pretend like I was a 5 year old child and had a wonderful time with SantaTime. It was a pretty incredible experience when he said my name and then we had an open dialog experience about what I wanted (a bike).

The digital Santa can do much more I soon found out after going through your typical sit on Santa's lap conversation. From singing to playing games, I was quite impressed with how jolly they made him and the realism to the entire experience (albeit a slight delay here and there).

The trivia was a lot harder than anticipated, so I transitioned to my adult self and still failed at answering his tough holiday questions. All in all, it was a very neat experience.

Nonetheless, I asked Santa about current events and other things to which he knew nothing. Needless to say, the singularity although it may be nearer... is still quite far away.