Shoggoth Mini
Hardware
soft robotics
SHOW HN2025
610points
107comments
#49of 3,837 in 2025
Top 2%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
12 positive, 20 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 7 critical, out of 40 comments about the project. Thread score +0.19.
Idea: 9 for, 4 againstDesign: 2 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Adorable and cute; expressive, feels alive
From 4 comments
This is adorable! I did some research on tentacle robots last year. The official term is “continuum robots” and there’s actually a great deal of research into their development…
SequoiaHope on HN> the delay for the GPT to process a response is very unnerving I'm not sure I agree. The way the tentacle stops moving and shoots upright when you start talking to it gives me…
justusthane on HNThis is so cool! I love the idea of adding expressivity to non verbal, non human entities.
huevosabio on HNThis is so sick. I agree that it’s a little lame that we have all these AI capabilities right now, robotics improving, and all we can think of making is humanoid robots. Like I…
typs on HN
Tentacle mechanism is neat; inspired by SpiRobs
From 3 comments
I seem to remember that the SpiRobs paper behind the (extremely neat) tentacle mechanism indicated that they were going for a patent.
regularfry on HNGreat video of SpiRobs, the inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GFyFmMm9-A
dcre on HNBeautiful work! I appreciate how this robot clearly does NOT try to look like any natural creature. I don't want a future where we can't easily distinguish nature from robotics.…
zhyder on HN
Objections
Delay while GPT processes response feels unnerving; frozen state unclear
From 2 comments
"ah, you hesitated" no more so than on every single other question. the delay for the GPT to process a response is very unnerving. I find it worse than when the news is…
dylan604 on HNit's the "thinking" frozen state while it uploads and waits for a GPT response that is unnerving. if the eyes did something to indicate progress is being made, then it would…
dylan604 on HN
Continuous audio listening is privacy-problematic
From 1 comment
"ah, you hesitated" no more so than on every single other question. the delay for the GPT to process a response is very unnerving. I find it worse than when the news is…
dylan604 on HN
Not truly alive; expressiveness fades once behavior is predictable
From 2 comments
What a fascinating intersection of technology and human psychology! "One thing I noticed toward the end is that, even though the robot remained expressive, it started feeling…
rainingmonkey on HNI don’t think the issue is that it feels alive as much as that it’s just not alive, so its utility is limited by its practical functionality, not its “opinions” or “personality”…
gigatree on HN
Requests
Use a wake word instead of continuous listening
From 1 comment
> also, "GPT-4o continuously listens to speech through the audio stream," is going to be problematic This seems like a good place to leverage a wake word library, perhaps…
accrual on HN
Run a smaller on-device model for lower latency
From 3 comments
I wonder how well suited some of the smaller LLMs like Qwen 0.6B would be suited to this... it doesn't sound like a super complicated task. I also feel like you can train a model…
jszymborski on HNbeyond the prototyping phase, which hosted models make very easy, there's little reason this couldn't use a very small optimized model on device... it would be significantly…
micromacrofoot on HNA Lovecraft reference, nice. I'm wondering whether a smaller model would suffice as well.
dunefox on HN
Give the eyes LEDs or animation to show processing
From 2 comments
"ah, you hesitated" no more so than on every single other question. the delay for the GPT to process a response is very unnerving. I find it worse than when the news is…
dylan604 on HNit's the "thinking" frozen state while it uploads and waits for a GPT response that is unnerving. if the eyes did something to indicate progress is being made, then it would…
dylan604 on HN
Questions
Would a smaller model suffice?
From 2 comments
A Lovecraft reference, nice. I'm wondering whether a smaller model would suffice as well.
dunefox on HNI wonder how well suited some of the smaller LLMs like Qwen 0.6B would be suited to this... it doesn't sound like a super complicated task. I also feel like you can train a model…
jszymborski on HN
Alternatives named
Furby
From 1 comment
Furbies spring to mind... They were a similar shape and size and even had two goggling eyes, but with waggling ears instead of a tentacle. They'd impress you initially but after…
floren on HN
SpiRobs continuum robot
From 2 comments
I seem to remember that the SpiRobs paper behind the (extremely neat) tentacle mechanism indicated that they were going for a patent.
regularfry on HNGreat video of SpiRobs, the inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GFyFmMm9-A
dcre on HN
Anki Cosmo
From 1 comment
Back when Anki (the robotics company) was building Cosmo, a *lot* of thought was put into making it expressive about everything that was going on. It really did a good job of…
lsaferite on HN