The $849 Mori is designed to respond to your environment, knowing when to play and when to stay quiet.

So many artificial intelligence devices are trying to command our attention, but when I met the Mori AI robot companion earlier this month, it was refreshing to see a device that’s using AI to exercise some playful restraint — even if its $849 retail price makes it a tough sell.

The Mori, announced Thursday by its maker Oka, is part glowy mushroom lamp and part Furby. And while it also looks a little bit like a larger smart speaker wrapped in fabric, the cutesy AI gadget made it quite clear that it was not interested in playing any of my playlists from Apple Music.

Instead, when activated, the Mori pops out of its body and uses its cameras and sensors to respond playfully to you — and, like a Furby, it speaks its own babylike language. It’s 10 inches tall (26.4 centimeters) and uses its sensors to help it tilt its head and move its “eyes” to follow your voice. Oka says the Mori processes images and audio on the device to discern context, then discards them. The device does store facial recognition data to distinguish familiar faces from unfamiliar ones, but Oka says that data isn’t uploaded either.

When I spoke directly to the Mori during my demo, it felt a lot like speaking to a friend’s dog: It will look and respond, but also reacts to other things at the same time.

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