When I first heard about this robot chicken, I immediately thought of the very strange animated series created by Seth Green. Unfortunately, this creation has absolutely nothing to do with quirky cartoons. Fitting somewhere between Tamagotchi virtual pets and a real puppy is the next-generation robot chicken from Sega. The little robots are fuzzy, cuddly, and unbearably cute, especially when paired with a bunch of children gently petting them.

They decided that the little chicks would be “modeled after 4-day-old chicks, because that’s when they’re the cutest.” The AI is also very easy to program, because chicks don’t do much. The algorithm is probably something like: When petted, cheep 30% of the time, raise wings 30% of the time, raise wings and cheep 30% of the time, and do nothing the other 10%; also cheep and/or raise wings randomly every few minutes.

The perfect pet? At least you don’t have to clean up after it.